Gaza rescuers say 40 displaced people killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza's civil defence agency said Thursday that a rash of Israeli air strikes killed at least 40 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the strikes, which came as Hamas officials said that internal deliberations on the latest Israeli truce offer were nearly complete.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in at least 16 deaths, "most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded".

After Israel declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone in December 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked there seeking refuge from bombardment, but the area has since been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.

Survivors described a large explosion at the densely packed encampment zone that set multiple tents ablaze.

"We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under God's protection, when we suddenly saw something red glowing -- and then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire," Israa Abu al-Rus told AFP.

"This is supposed to be a safe area in Al-Mawasi," Abu al-Rus said. "We fled the tent towards the sea and saw the tents burning."

Bassal said that Israeli strikes on two other encampments of displaced Gazans killed a further nine people -- seven in the northern town of Beit Lahia, and a father and son near Al-Mawasi.

Separately, the civil defence reported two more attacks on displaced people in Jabalia -- one that killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another that killed six people at a school being used as a shelter -- as well as Israeli shelling in Gaza City that killed two.

The military later announced it had carried out a strike in Jabalia on what it said was a Hamas "command and control" centre.

- 'Starvation as a weapon' -

Israel said Wednesday that it had converted 30 percent of Gaza into a buffer zone in the widening offensive it resumed in March, ending a two-month ceasefire.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said this month that the military was leaving Gaza "smaller and more isolated".

The United Nations said half a million Palestinians have been displaced since the offensive resumed, triggering what it has described as the most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

The leader of Qatar, which along with Egypt and the US helped mediate the January ceasefire deal, blamed Israel on Thursday for its collapse.

"As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately Israel did not abide by this agreement," said Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani during a visit to Moscow.

Qatar would continue to "strive to bridge perspectives in order to reach an agreement that ends the suffering of the Palestinian people", he added.

- New truce offer -

Hamas accused Israel on Thursday of attempting to starve Gaza's 2.4 million people after Katz said the day before that Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the territory.

"This is a public admission of committing a war crime, including the use of starvation as a weapon and the denial of basic necessities such as food, medicine, water, and fuel to innocent civilians for the seventh consecutive week," the group said in a statement.

In parallel to the Gaza offensive, Hamas said Israel had proposed a new 45-day ceasefire through mediators that would include the release of dozens of hostages.

The proposal also called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, a demand the group rejects.

Two Hamas officials said Thursday that internal discussions on the truce proposal were nearly complete, with one telling AFP "the group will send its response to the mediators once they finish" -- possibly on Thursday.

"Every time they say truce and just as we begin to catch our breath, the occupation resumes its bombings -- even more brutally than before," said Nidal Wresh Agha, a resident of Rafah.

"We pray that this time it is real -- so we can rest, hold our children close, breathe again and try to reclaim the fragments of a life buried in the rubble of our homes."

Israel's renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.