Israeli strike kills at least 17 in south Gaza, nearly all of them women or children

Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza killed at least 17 people late Tuesday, nearly all of them women or children, the territory’s Health Ministry said.

Five kids were killed in the same tent as they sheltered together in a camp for displaced Palestinians in Muwasi, said Ahmed al-Farra, director of the child ward at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. Their bodies were among the eight children and five women brought to the hospital.

The strikes tore into tents for displaced Palestinians, a car and two houses in the the Khan Younis area, the hospital said. Two of the dead were men, and the two in the vehicle were unidentifiable.

In the morgue, bodies lay on stretchers or stacked on metal shelves. A young girl in a fuzzy pink sweatshirt rested with her head in the lap of another girl. Other corpses, some disfigured by the explosions, were covered in blankets.

The Israeli military said it targeted militants who had taken part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war, without providing evidence. Israel said it took steps to lessen the risk of harming civilians and blamed Hamas for the civilian casualties.

It was not immediately clear if that strike that killed the five children was inside the area in Muwasi Israel's military designated a humanitarian safe zone but has repeatedly targeted. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties.

Muwasi is a desolate coastal area where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in makeshift tents during the cold and rainy winter.