Israel has attacked the “security zone” in the Gaza Strip at least ten times since the invasion of Rafah

Just over two months ago, Israel again forced more than a million Palestinians seeking shelter in the southern Gaza Strip to flee to an area it had declared a “humanitarian safety zone” – an area that the Israeli military has since attacked at least 10 times, new research shows.

After to the London research group Forensic ArchitectureThe area in Al-Mawasi, which is now home to thousands of Palestinians, has been subject to Israeli attacks since May 6, when Israeli officials first demarcated the “safe” zone.

The attacks began two weeks after Israel forced Palestinians to flee to the area, a desert region with no infrastructure, destroying tents and makeshift shelters that had been set up to house people Israel has repeatedly displaced over the past nine months.

“Like the relentless attacks on hospitals, Israel’s regular attacks on the so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ in al-Mawasi threaten to normalize such blatant violations of international law,” Forensic Architecture wrote on social media. “Saturday’s deadly attack is just one in a series of repeated attacks on the designated humanitarian zone: we have recorded 10 attacks since May 6.”

These findings contradict Israel’s claims that Al-Mawasi – and other alleged “safe zones” in Gaza – are exempt from the Israeli military’s “total annihilation campaign.” They also demonstrate Israel’s strategy of pushing Palestinians into ever smaller areas in Gaza and then bombing them.

The Israeli attack on the Al-Mawasi “safe” zone on Saturday, in which the military dropped eight 2,000-pound bombs on a civilian area, killed at least 90 Palestinians and wounded 300 others, officials said. At least one of the bombs dropped was of US manufacture.

Those seeking shelter in the “safe” zone during the massacre included desperate families who had been forced to evacuate several times since October and at least one survivor of the 1948 Nakba.

Survivors of the massacre describe scenes of horror as Israeli shells rained down – children with severed limbs, people beheaded, and shrapnel, blood and body parts flying everywhere.

Just days later, Israel dropped another series of bombs on Al-Mawasi on Tuesday, killing at least 17 Palestinians.

At least two of these attacks on the “safe” zone used US bombs. Two Boeing bombs were used on a camp for displaced Palestinians in an Israeli attack on May 26 that killed at least 45 people and injured 250 others.

These attacks on what is expressly designated as a “safe” zone come as Israel relentlessly attacks other areas of the Gaza Strip, violating international humanitarian law that prohibits attacks on civilian infrastructure.

The United Nations reported on Wednesday that it has recorded eight attacks on schools in Gaza in the last ten days, including six UN schools. This includes an Israeli attack on a UN school in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday, where two Israeli strikes killed 20 people at the facility, which is now a shelter for displaced people.

The World Health Organization also reported that the Israeli military has attacked health facilities in the Gaza Strip more than 1,000 times since October – part of Israel’s systematic campaign to destroy all infrastructure essential to life in the Gaza Strip.