The testimonies are strongly divergent after a bloody Israeli air attack on a tent camp in the Gaza Strip. Israel names individual high-profile terrorists who were allegedly killed, while Palestinians speak of a large number of innocent victims.
After the attack during the night against Tuesday, Gaza's civil defense and a Palestinian news agency reported that 40 people had been killed and 60 injured. The figure is now being significantly reduced, as the health department, controlled by Hamas, reports that 19 people have been found dead, according to the AP news agency.
According to a statement from the Hamas government, the different figures are due to the health department only counting bodies that have been taken to hospitals, while the civil defense also counts bodies that have not yet been retrieved.
IDF: Fighter jets were used
Israel's military confirms that it attacked the refugee tent camp with, among other things, fighter jets – but claims that it targeted one of Hamas' command centers, and made every effort to avoid civilian casualties.
At least three high-ranking Hamas members, with operational roles in the war against Israel, are said to have been killed, writes the Israeli military on X.
The Islamist movement Hamas completely rejects Israel's version that its members were present at the site.
"The occupation's accusations of the presence of resistance fighters are an obvious lie", the movement writes on Telegram.
"Whole families disappeared"
Palestinian sources, on the other hand, claim that US-made bombs struck among innocent residents.
"Whole families disappeared into deep holes in the sand in the massacre in al-Mawasi", says Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the civil defense, in a statement.
Witness Attaf al-Shaar describes the event in a similar way.
Victims ended up in the sand. They are being retrieved as body parts.
Videos circulating on social media show craters surrounded by extensive destruction. One of them appears to be as deep as ten meters.
The location is a tent camp in al-Mawasi outside the city of Khan Yunis, an area that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone. Many Palestinians who were displaced from their homes during the war live there.
