An Israeli airstrike late Monday hit a tent encampment in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, a zone the Israeli military had previously designated as humanitarian, killing a 23-year-old mother and her one-year-old daughter, according to local medical sources and Gaza’s civil defence authority. The strike ignited a fire that destroyed at least 100 shelters, leaving behind metal frames, charred mattresses and scattered kitchenware. The attack was part of a broader wave of Israeli operations across the enclave that killed at least eight Palestinians in the preceding 24 hours, including two children, hospital officials told Russia’s al-Youm network.

Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under the Hamas administration, reported that the cumulative death toll since 7 October 2023 has reached 73,058, with 173,488 wounded. Since a ceasefire took effect on 11 October, the ministry and the Government Media Office in Gaza have recorded 1,045 fatalities and 3,380 injuries, alongside 3,465 alleged violations of the truce. Medical teams state that many victims remain buried under rubble or lie in streets inaccessible to ambulances because of ongoing security risks, and 786 bodies have been recovered from debris since the ceasefire began.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem condemned the al-Mawasi strike in a Telegram statement, describing the shelters as flimsy and accusing the international community of complicit silence. He singled out Arab League states, their parliaments and elites, as well as the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, for remaining “motionless and silent” and declared them “adversaries of this child before God” for what he termed an ongoing genocide. From Tehran, Iranian state-linked media underscored the toll, while commentators in Southeast Asia noted that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is being eclipsed by the escalating military confrontation between the United States, Israel and Iran, pushing the enclave’s suffering into a secondary news cycle despite the persistence of daily casualties.

The al-Mawasi strike underscores the fragility of the truce and the difficulty of delivering protection to displaced civilians even in zones unilaterally declared safe by one party to the conflict. With rescue teams unable to reach many sites and hundreds of bodies still unaccounted for, the true casualty figures are likely higher than those officially recorded. No new diplomatic initiative has been announced, and the dossier remains stalled as regional attention pivots to the broader US-Israel-Iran standoff.