Israeli missile strike on Gaza kills at least 40: Palestinian authorities

Israel's military conducted a missile strike early Tuesday that targeted a humanitarian area in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians there, authorities said.

Details about the strike in the Mawasi coastal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone remained unclear. The area is home to many Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war in which the Israeli military has devastated the wider Gaza Strip after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The Israeli military described the strike as hitting significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center, without immediately providing additional evidence.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA said dozens had been killed and wounded, without providing precise casualty figures. It described five missiles striking the area, cratering the ground.

The Israeli military said it used precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional means it did