An Israeli strike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza killed more than 19 people and wounded 60 early on Tuesday, officials said, as Israel said it targeted senior Hamas militants with precise munitions.
Israel said it had struck a command centre for Hamas fighters who it said had infiltrated the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi, a vast camp on sandy soil where the military has told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to shelter since ordering them out of their homes. Hamas denied any fighters were present.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which compiles casualty figures, said hospitals had so far received 19 bodies, with other victims under sand and on roads that rescuers could not reach.
The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, had earlier said 40 people were killed and later raised that to 65. The Israeli military disputed that toll.
The Health Ministry is also part of the Hamas-run government but its figures are widely seen as generally reliable.
It maintains detailed records and its tallies from previous wars have largely coincided with figures from independent researchers, the United Nations and even the Israeli military.
In a statement, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that people sheltering in the camp had not been warned of the strike, adding a shortage of tools and equipment was hindering rescue operations.
"More than 20 to 40 tents were completely damaged," he said, adding the strike left behind "three deep craters".
"There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre."
One of three hospitals that took in casualties from the strike, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said around two dozen bodies were brought in.
An Associated Press cameraman saw 10 bodies in the hospital's morgue, including two children and three women.
One of the survivors, Ola al-Shaer, told Reuters at the site that she had been awakened by the violent blasts. She cried out to her children and fled into the night, surrounded by fire.
"We saw women cut in pieces, children cut in pieces and martyrs," she said.
"There are still people missing. People are looking for them and they still have not found them yet."
Ambulances raced between the tent camp and a nearby hospital, while Israeli jets could still be heard overhead, residents said.
The Israeli military said it struck senior Hamas commanders who were operating in a command centre embedded inside a designated humanitarian area.
"These terrorists were directly involved in the execution of the October 7th massacre and have been recently operating to carry out terror activities," it said.
The military added that the original claims of 40 deaths "do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike".
Hamas denied Israeli allegations that gunmen were present in the targeted area and rejected accusations it exploited civilian areas for military purposes.
"This is a clear lie that aims to justify these ugly crimes. The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or use these places for military purposes," Hamas said in a statement.
Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes at least once, and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.
The war was triggered on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 mostly civilians and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent assault and invasion of Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health ministry.
Detained UN convoy released by IDF
The Israeli military released a convoy of UN staff held for hours in northern Gaza, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday.
"The Israeli army stopped a UN convoy on its way to northern Gaza for more than eight hours today (Monday) despite prior detailed coordination," the UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazarrini wrote in a statement on X.
Mr Lazarrini said the vehicle convoy included Palestinian and international staff working as part of the polio vaccination campaign underway in northern Gaza and Gaza City.
The UN is working to vaccinate 640,000 children against the virus which re-emerged in the occupied territory in August.
The Israeli military said on Monday it detained the convoy after receiving intelligence indicating that a number of "Palestinian suspects" were travelling with the convoy and that it wanted to question them.
"The convoy was stopped at gun point just after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain UN staff," Mr Lazzarini said.
"Heavy damage was caused by bulldozers to the UN armoured vehicles."
"All staff & convoy are now released & back safely in the UN base," he said.
The commissioner-general said the incident was the latest in a number of shootings and arrests of UN staff in the occupied territory by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
The UN's World Food Programme temporarily suspended staff movement in Gaza in late August after a team came under fire near an Israeli checkpoint outside of Gaza City.
Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom was killed in Gaza in April when a World Central Kitchen convoy she was travelling in came under Israeli fire.
A report by appointed special advisor Mark Binskin said "serious" failures by the Israeli military led to Ms Frankcom's death.
Israel says US-Turkish citizen likely shot 'unintentionally' in West Bank
A march to honour US-Turkish citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was held in the West Bank on Monday, with hundreds of people lining the streets of Nablus.
Ms Eygi's body was carried by members of the Palestinian security forces, wrapped in a Palestinian flag and keffiyeh as mourners held up photos of her.
Turkish and Palestinian officials said on Friday that Israeli troops shot the 26-year-old, who had been taking part in a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion in the West Bank.
In a statement on Tuesday, the IDF said its inquiry found "that it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by (Israeli army) fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot".
In an account to AP, Israeli protester Jonathan Pollak said the shooting occurred about half an hour after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces had subsided.
Earlier, US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said the US expected Israel to "make their findings public, and expect that whatever those findings are, expect them to be thorough and transparent".
Türkiye's President Tayyip Erdogan condemned Ms Eygi's death, saying in a post on social media that Türkiye "will continue to work in every platform to halt Israel's policy of occupation and genocide".
Israel denies its actions in occupied Palestinian territories amount to genocide.
A rise in violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the settler movement.
