United Nations, September 10 (RHC)--  A United Nations envoy has condemned the recent Israeli airstrike on a tented encampment in southern Gaza near Khan Yunis that killed more than 40 displaced civilians.

“I strongly condemn today’s deadly airstrikes by Israel on a densely populated area in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis where displaced people were sheltering,” Tor Wennesland, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Separately, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs censured the international community's failure to halt Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. it said the failure enables Israel to “persist in committing further massacres” in Mawasi and other areas.

“An immediate ceasefire is the only way to protect Palestinian civilians and create a suitable environment for achieving a prisoner exchange deal.” 

Photos from the bombing site reveal widespread devastation, with craters 10 to 15 meters deep, burying dozens of tents.  The area had been declared by the regime itself as a "humanitarian safe zone."

In Tehran, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kan’ani denounced the attack in the strongest terms.  He said the regime has no respect whatsoever for legal and international standards as well as moral principles. 

In Ankara, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the deadly Israeli airstrike, saying the regime had “added a new crime to its list of war crimes.”   “We condemn Israel’s massacre of dozens of Palestinians in an attack on the tents of civilians in the so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ in Khan Younis,” the Turkish ministry said.  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already accused Israel of genocide and censured the Western camp for backing the regime.

Saudi Arabia, for its part, called on the international community to end Israel's “continuous violations of international law.”

“The Kingdom strongly condemns the targeting of Mawasi (in) Khan Younis south-west of Gaza,” a statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry read.  It also voiced the Kingdom’s rejection of the “continuation of the Israeli genocide crimes.”

Israel’s genocidal campaign has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million in Gaza.  Israeli evacuation orders, which now cover much of the territory, have pushed hundreds of thousands of people into Mawasi.