Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that a strike on the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in the Palestinian territory’s main southern city of Khan Younis killed 40 people and wounded 60 others, with the Israeli army claiming it had hit a Hamas command centre in the area.

Civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair told AFP that “40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred” to nearby hospitals following the strike.

“Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Yunis,” Mughair added. Civil defence sources said separately that the strike had left behind large craters.

“Entire families disappeared in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre, under the sand, in deep holes,” said civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal.