Al-Mawasi, home to thousands of displaced Palestinians, has been targeted several times since October.
More than 70 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured in Israeli military attacks on al-Mawazi, west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s health ministry put the death toll at 71 on Saturday, with 289 injured, some seriously.
The strike by Israeli warplanes targeted tents housing displaced Palestinians and a water distillation unit in an area a Gaza civil defense spokesman told Al Jazeera designated as a “safe zone” by the Israeli military.
Pictures from the scene show Palestinians trying to rescue people from the rubble, with children and paramedics among the injured.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said it was “a new massacre by the Israeli army”, adding that the area had been hit by “five bombs and five missiles”.
“The footage from the targeted area is incredibly bloody and devastating,” he said. The victims were taken to Nasser and Kuwait hospitals.
An official at Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera that medical teams did not have the capacity to receive injured patients, while civil defense teams continued to work at the scene of the attack.
The Israeli military has not officially commented on the strike, but unconfirmed Israeli media reports citing military officials indicate that a senior Hamas official may have been the target.
After Israel banned Al Jazeera, Hamda Salhud, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said it was a familiar tactic by the Israeli military to justify attacks on safe zones.
“We have repeatedly seen attacks on areas where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced. It’s a tactic commonly used by Israeli forces, who claim civilians are being used as ‘human shields’ for Hamas figures, using it as justification for killing dozens of civilians.
The al-Mawasi area has been repeatedly targeted by the Israeli military, with at least 21 people killed after a strike in late May hit tents housing displaced families.
Gaza Civil Defense’s deputy director of its fire and rescue department said an Israeli lone attack in central Khan Yunis killed and wounded eight other members. Civil defense teams were trying to rescue people from the residential building when Israeli aircraft bombed it again.
At least 60 bodies have been found after the Israeli army withdrew from some neighborhoods of Gaza City in the devastated northern part of the besieged enclave, civil defense groups said on Friday. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since the start of the war.
