A wave of Israeli air strikes on the camps for displaced Palestinians killed at least 40 people in Gaza, while Hamas officials said that consultations on the response to Israel Truce offer “almost complete”.
Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles struck several tents in the Al-Mawasi region of the southern city of Khan Younis, leading to at least 16 deaths, most of them women and children, and 23 others injured.
Two additional strikes on other camps of displaced people killed eight and injured several others, said Bassal.
Seven were killed in a strike on tents in the northern city of Beit Lahiya, while another attack near the Al-Mawasi region killed a father and his child who lived in a tent, he said.
“We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under the protection of God, when we suddenly saw something shiny red – then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire,” Israa Abu al -Rus told AFP.
“It is supposed to be a safe area in Al-Mawasi,” said Abu al-Rus. “We fled the tent to the sea and saw the tents burn.”
In addition, the civil defense reported two other attacks on the people displaced to Jabalia – one who killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another who killed six people in a school used as a refuge – as well as Israeli bombardments in Gaza City who killed two.
The Israeli army said it was considering reports on strikes, saying that the army had targeted what it said was a center of Hamas “commander and control” in Jabalia.
Hamas has accused Israel of having attempted hunger from the population of Gaza.
“This is a public admission to commit a war crime, in particular the use of famine 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 Palestinian militant group said in a statement.
The Islamist group’s accusation follows the Declaration of the Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz on Wednesday that Israel would prevent humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, when he promised to force Hamas to publish the remaining hostages of the October 7 attacks.
“Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,” Katz said. “No one is currently planning to authorize humanitarian aid in Gaza, and there is no preparation to allow such aid.”
Help supplies, including food, fuel, water and drugs, have been blocked by Israel to enter Gaza since March 2, more than two weeks before the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group with a return to air attacks and the ground on the territory.
The Doctors Sans Frontières medical organization said on Wednesday that Gaza became a “mass tomb for the Palestinians”.
The United Nations Humanitarian Bureau, known as OCHA, said that almost all 2 million Gaza people now have for food on meals prepared 1 m on a daily basis by charitable kitchens supported by aid groups.
Other food distribution programs have closed the absence of supplies, and the UN and other aid organizations have sent their remaining actions to charities.
The only other way to get food in Gaza is markets. But most cannot afford to buy there due to the spiral of prices and generalized shortages, which means that humanitarian aid is the main food source for 80% of the population, said the global food program in its monthly report for April on the Gaza markets.
“The Gaza Strip is now probably confronted with the worst humanitarian crisis for 18 months since climbing hostilities in October 2023,” said OCHA.
Meanwhile, two Hamas officials told AFP on Thursday that the group’s discussions on a proposal from Israeli truce were almost finished, with an expected response.
“These talks are almost finished, and the group will send its response to the mediators once they have finished. It is expected that the talks will end soon – perhaps even today,” said a member of the group confirming their account.
Hamas said that Israel had proposed a new 45-day ceasefire through mediators who would include the release of dozens of hostages.
The proposal also asked Hamas to disarm to ensure a complete end to war, a request that the group rejects.
However, a cease-fire agreement still seems to be distant, because the divisions persist between the two parties.
The efforts of the mediators of Egypt, Qatar and the United States to restore the cease-fire collapsed in Gaza and the return, the hostages continued to strike stumbling blocks.
Katz said that regardless of the agreement concluded, the Israeli troops would remain in the buffer areas that she had occupied in Gaza, as well as in neighboring Syria and Lebanon.
The renewed aggression of Israel has so far killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, reported the Ministry of Health of the territory managed by Hamas, passing the overall number since the war broke out at 51,065, most of them.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the death of 1,218 people, also mainly civilians.
AFP, AP and Reuters contributed to this report
