AMMAN, Jordan

Jordan on Saturday condemned Israel’s attack on camps for displaced people in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, urging urgent and effective international action to protect Palestinians.

In a statement following Israel’s attack on Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry “condemned in the strongest terms Israel’s continued brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip, and its systematic targeting of civilians and shelters for displaced persons.”

It stressed the need for “the international community to move immediately and effectively and provide international protection for the Palestinian people.”

Earlier Saturday, Israel targeted the tents of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, killing over 70 and injuring nearly 300 more, according to official Palestinian sources.

The Israeli military said its attack on the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis targeted senior officials of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing. Hamas denied the Israeli claims.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 88,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi