By Hosni Nadim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least five Palestinians, including a child, were killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a region designated by the Israeli military as a “humanitarian safe zone.”
Medical sources told Anadolu that five Palestinians, including a child, lost their lives, and several others were injured in the strike on the Mawasi area.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the airstrike hit a group of civilians, including two children, who were seeking shelter against the wall of a Quran memorization center run by the Ministry of Religious Endowments in the Al-Mawasi area.
The targeted area was “crowded with displaced people,” the witnesses added.
They noted that the region is part of the “humanitarian safe zones” identified by the Israeli army, where residents were advised to seek refuge.
However, this so-called “safe zone” lacks basic necessities and is overcrowded with displaced persons.
With the issuance of evacuation orders and the Israeli army's announcement of a military operation in Khan Younis on Friday morning, there has been a significant wave of displaced people toward the western regions of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli airstrikes have been intensifying in the eastern areas of Khan Younis for several days.
Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7 last year following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 91,700 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio