Palestinians were digging through burnt debris searching for bodies Thursday after some 20 people were killed a day earlier in an Israeli strike that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza. 

Residents carried a body wrapped in carpets out of the charred wreckage of the makeshift shelters in Al-Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people have sheltered in the crowded tent camp for months.

The tent camp was designated a humanitarian zone by Israeli authorities, who have long told Palestinians to go there for safety.

Mohamed Abu Shahla was sheltering in the tent camp when the strike hit "all of a sudden and without any warning."

"It didn't spare any people or anything," Abu Shahla told CBC News on Thursday.

The strike set several large tents ablaze, and the fire was worsened by the explosion of cooking gas canisters and the burning furniture of the displaced people. On Thursday, the area was strewn with charred clothing, mattresses and other belongings among the twisted frames of scorched shelters.

He said displaced Palestinians were looking for some 15 children missing following the attack.

"You heard the screams of women and children while they burned … there isn't a single body that's whole. All of them are in pieces," he said.

'Nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe'

Eyewitnesses said the strike on the tent camp caused a fireball to erupt.

"[Al-]Mawasi is not safe … nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe," Ahmad Al-Siqali said.

Gaza medics said the 20 confirmed dead in the Israeli strike there included women and children. Israel said the strike targeted senior Hamas operatives, whom it did not identify.

"We don't see anyone from the whole world standing by us or helping us in this situation. Let them stop this crazy war that's against us. Let them stop the war," said Abu Kamal Al-Assar, a witness at the site.

House in Gaza City destroyed in attack

The attack was one of several others across the Gaza Strip that killed a total of 39 Palestinians, according to medics.

In Gaza City, medics said an attack destroyed a house where an extended family had taken shelter and damaged two nearby homes, killing at least three people.

The Israeli army says militants frequently use residential buildings, schools and hospitals for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminate attacks and ignoring the plight of civilians in harm's way.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians on Thursday, medics said. Three others were killed in a separate airstrike in Shejaia, in eastern Gaza City, they added.

WATCH | Hundreds of Palestinians forced out of Beit Lahiya amid evacuation orders, bombings: 

Hundreds of Palestinians flee Beit Lahiya after Israeli evacuation orders, bombardment

Droves of Palestinians reached central Gaza on Wednesday after being ordered to evacuate the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Palestinians accuse Israel's army of trying to drive them out of the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone while the Israeli army denies this, saying it has returned to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.

On Thursday, Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north of the enclave, said a 16-year-old boy who used a wheelchair was killed, and several people, including medics, were wounded by Israeli drone fire against the medical facility.

There was no Israeli comment on Abu Safiya's account. The health ministry said the three hospitals that are barely operational on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip have come under repeated attack since Israeli forces sent tanks to Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns and the nearby Jabalia camp in October.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, it has laid much of the Gaza Strip to waste, forcing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes. Authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 44,500 Gazans have been killed, with thousands of others feared dead under the rubble.