Israeli website Haaretz on Thursday reported on the dire situation in Gaza's Mawasi area, which has been subjected to repeated airstrikes despite being designated by the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) as a "humanitarian zone."

On December 4, an airstrike on the Mawasi refugee camp killed 23 people, including four children and two women, one of whom was pregnant. The UN Human Rights Council issued a report on the attack, which destroyed 21 tents.

The IOF claimed the strike targeted Hamas operatives and that secondary explosions indicated the presence of munitions. However, the UN report rejected this claim, concluding, "According to information available to the UN Human Rights office, the secondary explosions were caused by hitting cooking gas balloons."

Mawasi, a 14-square-kilometer strip of sand dunes in southwest Gaza, has become a crowded encampment for hundreds of thousands of displaced people following IOF instructions for civilians to move there. Despite its classification as a safe zone, the area has witnessed intensified bombings, with aid groups reporting significant civilian casualties.

The UN estimates that around 30,000 people per square kilometer live in the area, enduring harsh conditions, including shortages of food, clean water, and proper shelter.

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Vaporized bodies

The strikes in Mawasi differ from those in urban areas, as they involve large bombs creating craters up to 15 meters in diameter, according to a New York Times investigation. "It looks like Nagasaki," said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Gaza branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Describing the aftermath of one bombing, he added, "They counted the bodies, but there are people who simply vaporized. Ten or twenty people who were known to be in the tents have simply vanished."

Humanitarian organizations have condemned the strikes. Doctors Without Borders criticized the use of heavy weapons in areas designated as safe, stating, "The use of heavy weapons in areas which the Israeli authorities have declared to be safe is further proof of the gross disregard for Palestinian lives and humanitarian law."

The IOF defends its actions, claiming that humanitarian zones "do not grant immunity to terrorists" and that Hamas is "systematically exploiting the humanitarian zones." 

Humanitarian collapse

Amid the bombings, looting of humanitarian aid has further complicated the crisis. UN officials report that aid convoys have been ambushed and their supplies stolen, hampering relief efforts. On Saturday, Muhannad Hadi, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, confirmed that a 70-truck food convoy from the World Food Program was looted shortly after crossing into Gaza.

Despite promises from Gaza's largest clans to curb looting, incidents persist. Aid groups warn that the deteriorating situation in Gaza, combined with the ongoing strikes, has left civilians with little hope. "They told us to go to Mawasi, so we came to Mawasi and settled here," one displaced person told AFP. "The area was bombed without prior warning."

Read more: Israeli military facilitating Gaza aid looting by gangsters: FT

Senior UN officials caution that the escalating crisis and lack of safety are driving some Gazans to stay in their homes despite the risks, with many saying they would rather die in their homes than as refugees in tents.