Israel has killed at least 40 Palestinians and wounded some 60 others in air strikes on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medics said.

A Gaza civil defence official told AFP news agency early on Tuesday that “40 martyrs and 60 wounded were recovered and transferred” to nearby hospitals following an Israeli attack inside the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, the Palestinian territory’s main southern city.

Residents and medics said the tent encampment was struck by at least four Israeli missiles.

The camp is crowded with displaced Palestinians who have fled from elsewhere in the enclave.

The Gaza civil emergency service said at least 20 tents caught on fire, and missiles caused craters as deep as 30 feet.

“Our teams are still moving out martyrs and wounded from the targeted area. It looks like a new Israeli massacre,” a Gaza civil emergency official said.

Without offering any proof, the Israeli military said it struck Hamas fighters who it said were “embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Younis.”

Palestinian resistance group Hamas denied its fighters were present at the site of Israeli massacre, saying “The [Israel] occupation’s allegations of the presence of resistance fighters are a blatant lie.”