Gaza rescuers say 20 killed in Israeli strike on northern camp

The civil defence agency in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 20 people were killed Saturday in an Israeli strike on a makeshift mosque at Al-Shati refugee camp in the territory’s north.

“The number of martyrs in the Al-Shati massacre has risen to 20, and there are still a number of wounded in serious condition,” Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the civil defence, told AFP.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Palestinians were seen sifting through the flattened remnants of the makeshift mosque after the deadly strike west of Gaza City.

Heavy fighting has raged for weeks in and around Gaza City.

At the end of June, an Israeli bombardment struck the family home of Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh, killing 10 people, according to the civil defence agency.

In the Gaza Strip’s south on Saturday, Israel said it targeted Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.

The health ministry said at least 90 people were killed in Al-Mawasi, half of them women and children, with another 300 wounded, many in “critical” condition.

Israel has designated Al-Mawasi a “safe zone”, ordering Gazans in May to head there from other areas.

Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million population has been displaced by the war, now in its 10th month. (BSS/AFP)