Hamas-run Gaza鈥檚 health ministry said dozens were killed Saturday in an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in an area where Israel said it targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
It is the latest mass-casualty incident in the Al-Mawasi area, where many Palestinians had fled, and came as international mediators pushed on with efforts to halt the nine-month war between Israel and Hamas militants.
A statement from the Gaza health ministry said there were more than 鈥�71 martyrs鈥� and 289 people wounded in what it called a 鈥榖rutal massacre by the occupation鈥�, a reference to Israel, at Al-Mawasi camp.
AFPTV footage showed sirens wailing and smoke rising in the distance as men used blankets to collect victims. Some were clearly beyond help and lay dead on the road.
There has been widespread global outrage over the war鈥檚 civilian toll.
In Israel, demonstrators were again expected to rally later Saturday demanding new elections and a deal to free hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Gathering by the tens of thousands at times, protesters have stepped up their actions against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In May, a fire killed 45 people at a tent city in Al-Mawasi.聽 Israel鈥檚 military said it had targeted and killed two senior Hamas militants in northwest Rafah in the strike which sparked the blaze, but added its munitions alone could not have caused the fire.
In another incident around the same time, a Gaza civil defence official said an Israeli strike killed 21 people at a displacement camp west of Rafah. Israel鈥檚 army rejected the allegations, saying it 鈥榙id not strike鈥� the designated humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi.
In late June, the International Committee of the Red Cross said 22 people were killed by shelling that damaged its Gaza office, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced people who sought shelter there.
Israeli military offensive has killed at least 38,443 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to a toll from the Gaza health ministry issued Saturday afternoon.
The war has left the vast majority of Gazans displaced and short of life-saving assistance in a territory where much of the infrastructure has been destroyed.
UN chief Antonio Guterres appealed to donor governments on Friday to resume funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, warning there was no alternative to UNRWA as a conduit for aid to Gazans despite longstanding Israeli opposition to the agency.
鈥楯ust when we thought it couldn鈥檛 get any worse in Gaza -- somehow, appallingly, civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell,鈥� he said.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said later that the agency now had enough funds to operate through September.
