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.

About 65 more are wounded and an unknown number remain under the rubble, health officials said.

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.

The attack ignited a blaze that engulfed at least 20 tents.

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.

Who’s sheltering at al-Mawasi?

A lot of people.

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, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

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.

Many are crowded into flimsy tents after being ordered to al-Mawasi by the Israeli army.

The targeted area was crowded with more than 60 tents, according to September 5 satellite images examined by Al Jazeera’s Sanad investigations agency.

[Al Jazeera]

What are conditions like there?

Desperate.

Many of those in al-Mawasi only went there when they ran out of options.

Multiple families share tents, with space at a premium and privacy nonexistent.

People are trying to survive without proper access to food, water, and essential services like sanitation and healthcare, aid agencies report. Queues for water, even to use in latrines, can last hours.

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.

“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 told ReliefWeb in August.

“Children are the most impacted.”

Why did Israel say al-Mawasi is a ‘safe zone’?

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.

However, those who did found it unfit for human habitation.

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 recipe for disaster on November 17.

“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.

So why did it hit al-Mawasi then?

Israel says several senior Hamas figures were in the humanitarian zone.

“[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.

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.”

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”.

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

Was that successful?

Not unless the deaths of 19 or more people mark a “success”.

Video from al-Mawasi shows large craters where the three missiles struck, damage inconsistent with the use of precision weaponry.

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.

The MK-84 is the largest of the US’s MK-80 series of weapons.

When detonated, has a lethal blast radius of 370 metres (1,213 feet).

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]

Has this humanitarian zone been targeted before?

Yes.

Al-Mawasi has suffered four major Israeli attacks before last night’s attack.

In total, excluding the 19 deaths recorded in the latest attack, Israel has killed 148 people in its raids on the humanitarian zone.

The biggest attack occurred on July 13, 90 people were killed and at least 300 wounded.

At the time, Israel said the attack intended to target two senior Hamas senior commanders, a claim dismissed by Hamas.