Sawt Falasteen - Israel strikes Gaza humanitarian zone, health ministry says at least 19 dead

The strike hit Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip, which Israel had designated as a "humanitarian zone" early in the war, and prompted condemnations from the region and beyond.

Samar al-Shair, one of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have sought refuge in the coastal area, said the attack came "as we were sleeping in our tents", setting makeshift shelters ablaze.

She told AFP the Israeli military had asked Palestinians to go to Al-Mawasi, "telling us it was safe. Where is the safety?"

Israel has carried out occasional operations in and around the area, including a strike in July that the military said killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and which Gaza health authorities said left more than 90 people dead.

As Egyptian, Qatari and US mediation efforts again appear to stall, Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said a truce and hostage release deal was a "strategic opportunity" that would give his country a "chance to change the security situation on all fronts".

Gallant said that after more than 11 months of war in Gaza, Hamas "as a military formation no longer exists" and has been reduced to "guerrilla warfare".

In Al-Mawasi, the military said it had targeted "significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area", which the Palestinian group has denied.

The Gaza health ministry said 19 bodies had been brought to hospitals since the early morning strike, but more victims were likely still buried in the sand.

The territory's civil defence agency earlier gave a death toll of 40 people, which the Israeli military said did "not align with the information" it had.

- 'War machine' -

Survivors of the strike scambled to retrieve their belongings from the rubble, including mattresses and clothing, an AFP journalist reported.

The Israeli military said some of the dead were "directly involved in the execution" of Hamas's October 7 attack.

Hamas said claims its fighters were present at the scene of the strike were "a blatant lie".

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said people sheltering in the camp in the dunes along the Mediterranean coast had not been warned of the strike, which left behind "three deep craters".

"There are entire families who disappeared under the sand," he said.

UN envoy Tor Wennesland condemned the strike, saying international humanitarian law "must be upheld at all times", while stressing "civilians must never be used as human shields".

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned "the shocking deaths", which he said showed "how desperately needed" a Gaza ceasefire was.

- Truce efforts stalled -

Hamas's October 7 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

Militants seized 251 captives during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,020 people, according to the territory's health ministry. The United Nations says most of the dead are women and children.

The war has drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups across the region, with Israeli forces trading regular fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On Tuesday the military as well as a source close to Hezbollah said an Israeli strike on eastern Lebanon, far from the border, killed a commander from the Iran-backed group.

Hamas has demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any truce deal, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted troops must remain along the territory's border with Egypt.

The war has left large swathes of Gaza in ruins and displaced the vast majority of its 2.4 million people at least once.

In Cairo, the European Union's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the bloc fully supported a truce.

But "those who are waging war have no interest in putting an end to it", Borrell told reporters.

burs/ami/jsa

O.Salim--SF-PST