Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza; Amnesty calls Israel's actions 'genocide'

The Israeli military killed at least 39 Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight, medics said on Thursday, including at least 20 in an attack that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a crowded camp. 

Residents carried a body wrapped in carpets out of the charred wreckage of the makeshift shelters in Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have sheltered for months. Israel calls the area a humanitarian zone and has long told people to go there for their safety.

Mourners said the latest attacks demonstrated that a new declaration from international human rights group Amnesty International that Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza - strongly rejected by Israel - had come too late.

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

Later 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 said it has since killed hundreds of militants in fighting with Hamas. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed they had killed many Israeli soldiers in those areas in the same period.

The strike at Mawasi set several large tents ablaze and exploding cooking gas canisters and burning furniture fuelled the fire. The area was strewn with charred clothing, mattresses and other belongings among the twisted frames of burnt-out shelters.

"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.

The attack came on the day Amnesty International released its report saying Israel's actions in Gaza met the definition of the crime of genocide. Israel strongly rejected that accusation, denouncing Amnesty as a "deplorable and fanatical organisation".

At a funeral in Khan Younis, where relatives wept over white-shrouded bodies, resident Abu Anas Mustafa called the Amnesty report "a victory for Palestinian diplomacy", although he said it came late.

"It is the 430th day of the war today, and Israel has been carrying out massacres and a genocide from the first 10 days of the war," he said.

Other Israeli strikes reported on Thursday hit Gaza City, where medics said an attack destroyed a house where an extended family had taken shelter and damaged two nearby homes, killed 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 air strike in Shejaia, in eastern Gaza City, they added.

Israel launched its latest assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Octpber 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 2.3 million population 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.