Strike kills 40 in humanitarian zone

Israeli military says it targeted senior Hamas militants, disputes death toll

GAZA/JERUSALEM — An Israeli strike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the fighting in Gaza killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants and disputed the death toll.

It was among the deadliest strikes yet in Muwasi, a sprawl of crowded tent camps along the Gaza coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of civilians to seek shelter from the Gaza conflict.

Gaza's civil defense agency said its first responders recovered 40 bodies from the strike and were still looking for people. It said entire families were killed in their tents.