Dozens martyred as terrorist Israel bombs displacement camp
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry said dozens were martyred Saturday in an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in an area where Israel said it targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
It is the latest mass-casualty incident in the Al-Mawasi area, where many Palestinians had fled, and came as international mediators pushed on with efforts to halt the nine-month war between Israel and Hamas militants.
A statement from the Gaza health ministry said there were more than "71 martyrs" and 289 people wounded in what it called a "brutal massacre by the occupation", a reference to Israel, at Al-Mawasi camp. The Israeli military said it had targeted Deif and Rafa Salama, a brigade commander, calling them "two of the masterminds of the October 7 massacre" which sparked the Gaza war.
"The area that was struck is an open area, surrounded by trees, several buildings and sheds. It was not a tent complex, but an operational compound," it said. A Hamas statement called the claim that Deif had been targeted "false allegations" intended "to cover up the magnitude of the horrific massacre".
AFPTV footage showed sirens wailing and smoke rising in the distance as men used blankets to collect victims. Some were clearly beyond help and lay dead on the road. "What did we do?" a woman screamed in the street. "What did we do? We were just sitting near the beach." Israel in May had told Palestinians in the Rafah area to move to a designated humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi on the coast as troops moved in to the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border.
There has been widespread global outrage over the war's civilian toll. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli leader "issued a standing order to eliminate senior Hamas officials at the beginning of the war". The office added that Netanyahu had discussed the strike with security and military officials and would hold more meetings "to discuss the next developments and steps".
'Circles of hell'
UN chief Antonio Guterres appealed to donor governments on Friday to resume funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, warning there was no alternative to UNRWA as a conduit for aid to Gazans despite longstanding Israeli opposition to the agency. "Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse in Gaza -- somehow, appallingly, civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell," he said.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said later that the agency now had enough funds to operate through September. Israel and Hamas have engaged in months of indirect talks via Qatari, US and Egyptian mediators to reach a still elusive truce and hostage release deal.
Talks took place in Doha on Wednesday, while Israel said it was sending a delegation to Cairo on Thursday evening for further negotiations. Netanyahu continues to insist that any deal must allow Israel to meet all its war aims -- destroying Hamas as well as bringing home all the hostages.
US President Joe Biden has outlined what he called an Israeli plan for a six-week truce in which hostages held in Gaza would be freed in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons. A second phase would see talks on a full end to the war.
On Thursday, he said: "That framework is now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas. "There are still gaps to close, but we're making progress, the trend is positive, and I'm determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now." Biden again pressed Israel for a "day-after" plan for Gaza and spoke of diplomatic efforts to persuade Arab states to help with security.
Hamas has proposed an independent and non-partisan government for both post-war Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Hossam Badran, a member of the group's political bureau. Badran's remarks came after Netanyahu -- whose critics have accused him of prolonging the war -- demanded that Israel retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, Gaza territory along the border with Egypt.
