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<h1>What’s Mawasi, the Israel-designated Gaza ‘safe zone’ it bombed overnight?</h1><p class="gmail-article__subhead"><em>Israel killed 19 people in overnight attacks on the tent encampment in al-Mawasi Khan Younis.</em></p><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AFP__20240910__36FY2NA__v3__Preview__PalestinianIsraelConflict-1725955339.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip" width="396" height="264" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div>Palestinian
women stand helplessly amid the destruction left by 2,00-pound bombs
dropped by Israel on the tents of a displacement camp in al-Mawasi Khan
Younis in Gaza on September 10, 2024 [Bashar Taleb/AFP]<div class="gmail-article-info-block"><div class="gmail-article-b-l"><div class="gmail-article-author-name"><span class="gmail-article-by">By </span><span class="gmail-article-author-name-item"><a class="gmail-author-link" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/author/al_jazeera_staff_150119130629458">Al Jazeera Staff</a></span></div><div class="gmail-article-dates"><div class="gmail-date-simple gmail-css-1yjq2zp"><span class="gmail-screen-reader-text">Published On 10 Sep 2024</span><span aria-hidden="true"> - </span><font size="1"><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/10/what-was-the-humanitarian-zone-bombed-overnight-by-israel">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/10/what-was-the-humanitarian-zone-bombed-overnight-by-israel</a></font></div></div></div><div class="gmail-social-share-buttons"><div class="gmail-update-reading-list"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-update-reading-list"><span class="gmail-update-reading-list__tooltip" role="tooltip"></span></div><a class="gmail-social-share-button gmail-fbc-has-badge gmail-fbc-UID_2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fdwrl38"></a><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=What%E2%80%99s%20Mawasi%2C%20the%20Israel-designated%20Gaza%20%E2%80%98safe%20zone%E2%80%99%20it%20bombed%20overnight%3F&source=sharethiscom&related=sharethis&via=AJEnglish&url=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fdwrl38"></a><a class="gmail-social-share-button gmail-copylink" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Copy link" href="https://aje.io/dwrl38"></a><p>Israel
has killed at least 19 people in an attack on a tent encampment within
the so-called humanitarian, or “safe”, zone in al-Mawasi, Gaza.</p>
<p>About 65 more are wounded and an unknown number remain under the rubble, health officials said.</p>
<p>The encampment, designated a humanitarian safe zone by Israel in
December, was struck by at least three missiles in the early hours of
Tuesday, displaced people and medics told news agencies.</p>
<p>The attack ignited a blaze that engulfed at least 20 tents.</p>
<p>The camp at al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah, is one of
the most overcrowded areas in a landscape devastated by 11 months of
relentless Israeli bombardment.</p><div style="display:block;min-width:0px;max-width:770px"><div class="gmail-video-player-facade-container"><div class="gmail-aj-video-player gmail-in-article-bc-video-player gmail-aj-parsed-component"><span class="gmail-video-js gmail-vjs-paused gmail-vjs-controls-enabled gmail-vjs-workinghover gmail-vjs-v8 gmail-vjs-user-active gmail-vjs-layout-medium gmail-bc-player-6tKQRAx7lu_default gmail-bc-player-6tKQRAx7lu_default-index-0 gmail-vjs-mouse gmail-vjs-ad-controls gmail-vjs-ima3-html5 gmail-vjs-plugins-ready gmail-pause-controller gmail-vjs-player-info gmail-vjs-contextmenu-ui gmail-vjs-viewability gmail-vjs-errors gmail-vjs-quality-menu gmail-vjs-hide-controls" id="gmail-vjs_video_3" tabindex="-1" lang="en" role="region" aria-label="Video Player"><div class="gmail-vjs-poster" aria-disabled="false"><span class="gmail-vjs-poster" tabindex="-1"><img alt="" src="https://cf-images.eu-west-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/665003303001/c056a0b6-759b-4379-a279-acb9b342307c/59d7e4d2-dafa-4e19-93a3-90c563d66a42/1890x1063/match/image.jpg" width="396" height="223" style="margin-right: 0px;"></span></div></span></div></div></div><div class="gmail-aj-video-player gmail-in-article-bc-video-player gmail-aj-parsed-component"><span class="gmail-video-js gmail-vjs-paused gmail-vjs-controls-enabled gmail-vjs-workinghover gmail-vjs-v8 gmail-vjs-user-active gmail-vjs-layout-medium gmail-bc-player-6tKQRAx7lu_default gmail-bc-player-6tKQRAx7lu_default-index-0 gmail-vjs-mouse gmail-vjs-ad-controls gmail-vjs-ima3-html5 gmail-vjs-plugins-ready gmail-pause-controller gmail-vjs-player-info gmail-vjs-contextmenu-ui gmail-vjs-viewability gmail-vjs-errors gmail-vjs-quality-menu gmail-vjs-hide-controls" id="gmail-vjs_video_3" tabindex="-1" lang="en" role="region" aria-label="Video Player"></span></div><div class="gmail-video-duration__brand-bar"><span class="gmail-screen-reader-text">Video Duration 1 minutes 32 seconds </span><span aria-hidden="true" class="gmail-video-duration__duration">1:</span></div>
<p> </p>
<h2 id="gmail-who-s-sheltering-at-al-mawasi">Who’s sheltering at al-Mawasi?</h2>
<p>A lot of people.</p>
<p>Palestinians displaced by Israel’s war on Gaza are “increasingly
forced to concentrate within the Israeli-designated zone in al-Mawasi”,
an area of approximately 41sq km (15.83sq miles) lacking critical
infrastructure and services, <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-new-evacuation-orders-further-hamper-relief-operations-ocha-who-un-geneva-press-briefing/" target="_blank">according to</a> the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).</p>
<p>Some 1.9 million people – 90 percent of Gaza’s population – have been
displaced at least once by Israel’s war. Of those, roughly 43,580 are
estimated to be pregnant women, statistics from the UN Population Fund
show.</p>
<p>Many are crowded into flimsy tents after being ordered to al-Mawasi by the Israeli army.</p>
<p>The targeted area was crowded with more than 60 tents, according to
September 5 satellite images examined by Al Jazeera’s Sanad
investigations agency.</p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-3169766" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/INTERACTIVE-Israeli-attack-on-al-Mawasi-camp-2-September-10-2024-1-1725973880.png?w=770&resize=770%2C962&quality=80" alt="INTERACTIVE-Israeli attack on al-Mawasi camp -2- September 10, 2024 (1)-1725973880" width="317" height="396" style="margin-right: 0px;">[Al Jazeera]
<h2 id="gmail-what-are-conditions-like-there">What are conditions like there?</h2>
<p>Desperate.</p>
<p>Many of those in al-Mawasi only went there when they ran out of options.</p>
<p>Multiple families share tents, with space at a premium and privacy nonexistent.</p>
<p>People are trying to survive without proper access to food, water,
and essential services like sanitation and healthcare, aid agencies <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/displaced-people-struggle-without-sanitation-services-khan-younis-gaza" target="_blank">report</a>. Queues for water, even to use in latrines, can last hours.</p>
<p>Aid delivery to the area is “limited due to access and security
issues” while severe overcrowding compounds the dire health and sanitary
conditions, OCHA said.</p>
<p>“Every day, we see between 300 to 400 people at the medical clinic,
of which 200 cases are related to skin conditions,” Dr Youssef Salaf
al-Farra <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/displaced-people-struggle-without-sanitation-services-khan-younis-gaza" target="_blank">told</a> ReliefWeb in August.</p>
<p>“Children are the most impacted.”</p>
<h2 id="gmail-why-did-israel-say-al-mawasi-is-a-safe-zone">Why did Israel say al-Mawasi is a ‘safe zone’?</h2>
<p>Under international pressure for the “scale” of its war on Gaza,
Israel designated al-Mawasi a “safe zone” in October last year, using
leaflets, social media, and phone calls to tell people to go there for
safety.</p>
<p>However, those who did found it unfit for human habitation.</p>
<p>Establishing the area as a humanitarian zone was widely criticised at
the time, with World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus calling the Israeli proposal <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/6/how-israel-is-squeezing-1-8-million-palestinians-into-an-airport-sized-area">a recipe for disaster</a> on November 17.</p>
<p>“Attempting to cram so many people into such a small area with such
little infrastructure or services will significantly increase risks to
health for people who are already on the brink,” he said.</p>
<h2 id="gmail-so-why-did-it-hit-al-mawasi-then">So why did it hit al-Mawasi then?</h2>
<p>Israel says several senior Hamas figures were in the humanitarian zone.</p>
<p>“[E]xtensive intelligence gathering was conducted, as well as
continuous aerial surveillance in the hours leading up to the strike,
which confirmed the presence of the terrorists in the area,” the
statement read.</p>
<p>However, this claim has been rejected by Hamas, which condemned
the“heinous massacre” and said, “The resistance has denied several times
that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or use these
places for military purposes.”</p>
<p>Israel also says that every step was taken to minimise the loss of
life, including the “use of precision weaponry, aerial surveillance and
additional intelligence information”.</p>
<div class="gmail-twitter-tweet gmail-twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display:flex;max-width:550px;width:100%;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px"></div>
<p></p>
<p><em>Translation: This is another example of the systematic use by the
terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip of the population and
civilian infrastructure, including the humanitarian space, for the
purpose of carrying out terrorist acts against Israel and the [military]
forces</em></p>
<h2 id="gmail-was-that-successful">Was that successful?</h2>
<p>Not unless the deaths of 19 or more people mark a “success”.</p>
<p>Video from al-Mawasi shows large craters where the three missiles
struck, damage inconsistent with the use of precision weaponry.</p>
<p>Analysis of footage of the bomb site by Al Jazeera’s Sanad suggests
that Israel deployed the US-manufactured 2,000-pound MK-84 bomb on the
encampment.</p>
<p>The MK-84 is the largest of the US’s MK-80 series of weapons.</p>
<p>When detonated, has a lethal blast radius of 370 metres (1,213 feet).</p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-3168831" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024-09-10T062752Z_1404623005_RC2DX9AMCINL_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-GAZA-1725951021.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="Israeli airstrikes" width="396" height="264" style="margin-right: 25px;">Palestinians
comb through the wreckage of their tent homes after Isreal bombed the
displacement camp they were sheltering in, in al-Mawasi Khan Younis on
September 10, 2024 [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
<h2 id="gmail-has-this-humanitarian-zone-been-targeted-before">Has this humanitarian zone been targeted before?</h2>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>Al-Mawasi has suffered four major Israeli attacks before last night’s attack.</p>
<p>In total, excluding the 19 deaths recorded in the latest attack,
Israel has killed 148 people in its raids on the humanitarian zone.</p>
<p>The biggest attack <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/7/13/israeli-air-raid-on-al-mawasi-kills-90-people-what-we-know-so-far">occurred on July 13</a>, 90 people were killed and at least 300 wounded.</p>
<p>At the time, Israel said the attack intended to target two senior Hamas senior commanders, a claim dismissed by Hamas.</p><li tabindex="4"><br> <div class="gmail-playlist-item-image-container"><div class="gmail-video-item-duration-container gmail-playlist-item-duration-container"></div></div></li></div>