At least 40 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on a tent encampment designated as a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, Gaza officials said early on Tuesday, in what the Israeli military said was an attack on a Hamas command centre, writes The Telegraph.

Gaza civil defence officials told Agence France-Presse and the BBC that as well as the 40 people killed in the attack inside the Al-Mawasi camp, a further 60 were injured and transferred to local hospitals.

Residents and medics said the tent encampment in the al-Mawasi area was struck by at least four 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 nine metres. There was no immediate comment from the Gaza health ministry, which compiles casualty figures. “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.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis. “The terrorists advanced and carried out terror attacks against IDF troops and the state of Israel”, the statement said.

Hamas denied its fighters were present at the scene of the strike, saying in a statement on Telegram: “The occupation’s allegations of the presence of resistance fighters are a blatant lie”.