An Israeli airstrike killed 11 people and injured others in the south of the Gaza Strip early on Thursday morning, according to Palestinian reports.
Israeli fighter jets struck a makeshift tent housing displaced persons in the designated humanitarian area in al-Mawasi, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted and killed the leader of Hamas’s internal security forces, who was allegedly hiding in the area, adding that it had taken measures to protect civilians before the attack.
It emphasized that Hamas security forces were responsible for violently interrogating Palestinian residents and persecuting dissidents.
The information from both sides could not initially be independently verified.
The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi in the past, saying that its targets are command centres used by the Islamist militant group Hamas.
WAFA also reported that several other people had been killed in Israeli attacks in various parts of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Israel said on Thursday that extremists in the south of the coastal strip had fired a missile towards Israel, which was intercepted.
According to Palestinian figures, more than 45,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began after the Hamas-led massacre of around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023.