Jerusalem, July 9 (EFE).- At least 54 Gazans were killed in Israeli strikes on the Al-Mawasi area, towards which the military asks people in the Gaza Strip to move daily, Zaher al-Waheidi, director of the health ministry unit in charge of counting the dead, confirmed to EFE on Wednesday.
“Nasser Hospital received 54 bodies,” the official said, referring to the main hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, a city adjacent to the Al-Mawasi beaches and completely under evacuation orders from the Israeli military.
Sources at Nasser Hospital indicated that Israel attacked 13 tents in this coastal area, where some 425,000 displaced Gazans – according to the United Nations – have been crowded for months, fleeing the fighting in the Strip.
“Over the past 24 hours, the Air Force has attacked more than 100 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip. Among the targets attacked with the assistance of ground forces were terrorists, booby-trapped buildings, weapons depots, anti-tank launch sites, combat tunnels, and other terrorist infrastructure,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Wednesday.
The IDF has yet to comment on the attacks on Mawasi.
On Tuesday, Israel ordered the forced evacuation of nine sectors of Khan Younis bordering Al-Mawasi, warning that its troops were conducting ground operations there and that intense and surprise attacks would be launched.
Although the military has designated these beaches as a “safe area” since May 2024, it has bombed them regularly.
On Mar. 18, when Israel broke the ceasefire in Gaza, the military withdrew that security status, a military spokesperson confirmed to EFE.
However, it continues to direct the population there when ordering evacuations.
Between Mar. 18, when the war in Gaza resumed, and June 16, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) recorded the deaths of 380 people in Al-Mawasi, 158 of them women and children.
This coastal area covers approximately 8.9 square kilometers (3.4 square miles) and currently has a population density of approximately 48,000 people per square kilometer.
At its narrowest point, the distance between the sea and what Israel considers a combat zone is approximately 540 meters. EFE
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