Flashlights in the hands of rescue workers break the dense darkness over the sand in al-Mawasi, the tent encampment sheltering displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis. A group of men with shovels struggle to remove sand in the middle of a giant crater in the Israeli-designated “safe zone.” In video testimony collected for Mondoweiss, rescue workers pull out half-buried blankets from the sand and explain that they are trying to dig people out of the crater, which was caused by an Israeli airstrike.
The Israeli massacre at Mawasi in the early hours of Tuesday, September 10, is the latest in a string of targeted Israeli strikes on displacement camps across the Gaza Strip, alongside the bombing of school shelters. As of the time of writing, the massacre has claimed the lives of at least 40 Palestinians and injured 60 others, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health. This is also the second major massacre in the Mawasi “safe zone” and the fifth overall in the area. The first major massacre took place in the middle of July and led to the death of 90 Palestinians. In that attack, Israel claimed to be targeting the leader of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, Muhammad al-Deif. In Tuesday’s most recent attack, the Israeli army claimed to be targeting a Hamas command center.
According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the latest massacre at al-Mawasi was carried out with U.S.-made bombs with “a wide destructive capacity.” The UN secretary general, the UN coordinator for humanitarian affairs in Palestine, and the EU chief of diplomacy have all condemned the massacre.
Attack with no warning
“They told us to move to al-Mawasi, so we came to al-Mawasi,” a middle-aged man in a blue undershirt tells Mondoweiss in the wake of the attack. “They gave us no warning. They didn’t tell us to move or that this was a combat zone. They hit us completely by surprise.”
“I woke up looking for my children, and then I walked out and saw people scattered. One dead over here, another over there,” he continues. “Look at this crater. It is at least 20 meters wide. Of course, there are more people under the sand, but we’ll only know in the morning.”
“Those here are poor people fleeing the bombing,” another elderly Mawasi local says on camera. “Some of them pay rent for the place they are in, others are allowed to stay for free, but they are all regular people. None of them are part of the resistance or anything.”
“We pulled out many martyrs and injured. There are still many more under the sand, but most of them are women and children,” he exclaims.
Over the past several weeks, the Israeli army has reduced the areas it has designated as “safe zones” in Gaza to less than 30% of the strip’s surface. Over one million people, or half of Gaza’s population, are forced into these small areas. Whenever the Israeli army bombs these encampments, entire families are often killed. In Tuesday’s Mawasi massacre, entire families were buried in the sand.
Israeli bombs change the landscape
Although the Israeli army claims that each attack that leads to a massacre is targeting Hamas, the encampments are largely makeshift with little infrastructure that could presumably be used by Hamas as “command centers.” At al-Mawasi, Palestinians have installed improvised toilets in between tent groups, the only existing structures aside from fragile tents. When Israeli bombs drop on these areas, they effectively change the landscape of the area.
“The explosion was so strong that even water came out of the ground,” a displaced survivor tells Mondoweiss. “As you can see, there are only tents around us, nothing else,” he points. “Imagine yourself sleeping when all of a sudden you find out that everything around you is being torn apart. Of course, we were shocked! I couldn’t see anything or anyone in front of me at first,” he adds.
“There were five tents here,” he says, pointing to one of the craters. “And then four tents over there, and a couple of toilets on that side.”
“I woke up and found myself covered in blood,” another survivor with a bandage on his forehead and half his face burnt from a previous incident says. “I ran screaming, calling for my family, only to find that the nearby house collapsed on them, but thank God they all survived.”
“They [the Israeli army] had bombed another encampment on the other side, and the house over here collapsed on people,” he adds breathlessly. “I don’t know what else to say. God help us.”