Israeli forces destroy Mawasi’s shelters, cemeteries after expelling thousands from ‘safe zone’

Israel's latest attack on the displaced saw its forces tear down tents and damage cemeteries, leaving widespread destruction in the wake of an incursion into Khan Younis on Thursday that forced thousands to flee again, eyewitnesses told Mada Masr.

Tanks advanced into the coastal strip of Mawasi, an area designated by the Israeli military as a “safe zone,” and opened fire on tents pitched in the area, two eyewitnesses told Mada Masr.

People were struck by shrapnel and bullets and others suffocated from the tear gas, Ahmed Abu Shehab, who was sheltering in the area, said to Mada Masr. Another eyewitness, Omar Abu Taha, confirmed that some people were killed while trying to escape.

Civil defense and ambulance crews were initially unable to retrieve bodies from the area, Abu Taha added.

The advancing forces stormed one of the largest displacement camps in the Nemsawy neighborhood, setting fire to several tents and razing others, he said.

They tore through the camp, destroying tents and shelters, Abu Shehab told Mada Masr. “Death was creeping in on us from every direction.”

People in the area said that the invading forces later withdrew. Images from the area the following day showed widespread damage and charred belongings strewn across the site.

People fled carrying what little they could. Abu Shehab, who had pitched his tent with his family in Mawasi earlier in the war, was forced to leave all his belongings behind to escape the camp before the oncoming vehicles arrived.

Those displaced from the camp have nothing to eat as Gaza’s starvation crisis deepens, he said. His children went without food for over a day after the advance.

As well as tent shelters, Israeli forces also desecrated nearby burial grounds and destroyed a cemetery in Nemsawy, Abu Taha said. About 400 meters away, tanks and bulldozers stormed the Turkish cemetery, where, according to Gaza’s Endowments Ministry, they “dug up graves and stole the bodies of the dead.”

Around 40 out of Gaza’s 60 cemeteries have been fully or partially destroyed by Israel’s genocidal war, according to the ministry.