Dozens dead, others displaced as Israel continues attacks on Gaza | News on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, including a drone strike on a cafe in the al-Mawasi area in the south of the territory, previously designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military.

An Israeli attack hit a makeshift cafeteria used by displaced people in al-Mawasi late Monday.

According to officials at Nasser Hospital, where the injured were taken, at least 11 people died, including two children. A video from the crime scene showed men pulling the wounded out from between tables and chairs set up in the sand in a corrugated iron enclosure.

According to Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip were forced to flee shelters and camps in Beit Hanoon as Israeli forces escalated an offensive in the area.

“The Israeli army surrounded an evacuation center and a school housing hundreds of Palestinians and urged them to flee south,” he said.

“The Israeli soldiers had ordered the women to flee south without allowing them to seek any kind of help. As soon as they left the school, they were attacked by Israeli quadcopter drones as a method of intimidation.”

The evacuations came after Israeli forces bombed the area overnight. Sohair Abu Ouda, an evacuee from Beit Hanoon, said Israeli forces “carried out killings throughout the night in Beit Hanoon and bombed the few buildings still standing.”

“We couldn’t even bury the dead,” Abu Ouda said. “Many bodies are still buried under the rubble.” Israeli warplanes, quadcopters and artillery bombarded us throughout the night. Even snipers were deployed and started shooting civilians.”

In the southern city of Khan Younis, 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on vehicles, according to Nasser Hospital.

Another strike occurred early Tuesday at a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, including a woman, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the injured. Eleven others were injured in the attack, it said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the attacks.

According to Palestinian health authorities, at least 43,665 people have been killed and 103,076 injured in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023.