In the early hours of Tuesday 10 September, Israel committed yet another horrific massacre in the Gaza Strip’s Al-Mawasi area, which it has designated as a “safe zone” for civilians that have been displaced by fighting. At time of writing, the death toll stands at 40, with another 60 injured, although these numbers are likely to rise as people continue to dig through the sand to recover bodies and survivors.

Israel claims that it hit a Hamas command centre, disguised within the “humanitarian zone”. Anyone who has followed Israel’s heinous and indiscriminate war on Gaza over the past eleven months will recognise this familiar line of justification, which Israel follows when it commits a massacre: target a civilian area, claim Hamas was there, provide no evidence and wait for the world to move on. It is a familiar pattern, which Israel also used when it killed 90 in the same Al-Mawasi area, claiming that it targeted the head of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif.

In last night’s strike, Israel claims that it took all measures possible to reduce civilian casualties. However, according to reports, Israel dropped four 2,000 lb US-made bombs that immediately disintegrated twenty tents and left craters 9 metres deep – hardly a precision strike designed to minimise civilian casualties.

Reacting to the news, Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs at Friends of Al-Aqsa, said, “It has become all too familiar to wake up to the news that Israel has committed another massacre against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The latest attack on the Al-Mawasi area, where so many of Gaza’s displaced are sheltering in makeshift tents, is a heinous war crime and it is shameful that, despite mounting evidence, the Labour government continues to aid and ally itself to the genocidal Israeli regime. We hold them responsible and will continue to pressure them into imposing a complete arms embargo. We refuse to accept these Israeli massacres as normal and reaffirm that there can be no ‘business as usual’ during a genocide.”