Gaza rescuers say 37 killed in Israeli strikes across territory

Gaza's civil defence agency said Thursday that a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its unrelenting military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, but said it was looking into reports of the strikes, which came as Hamas officials said 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".

Survivors described a large explosion at the densely packed encampment 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, and the place just exploded. We fled the tent towards the sea and saw the tents burning."

After Israel declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone in December 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to its sand dunes along the Mediterranean coast seeking refuge from Israeli bombardment.

But the area has since been hit by repeated Israeli strikes, which have exacted a heavy civilian death toll.

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 defense agency reported two more attacks on displaced people in Jabalia -- one that killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another that killed three people at a school being used as a shelter.

The agency also reported two people killed by Israeli shelling in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.

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.

Defense 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.

The Israeli military said its air strikes had hit "approximately 1,200 terror targets" since March 18, and "more than 100 targeted eliminations have been carried out".

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.

Israel halted the entry of aid on March 2, exacerbating the territory's ongoing humanitarian crisis.

"Blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population," the defence minister said.

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.

Netanyahu met hostage negotiators and security chiefs on Wednesday and "issued directives for the continuation of the steps to advance the release of our hostages", his office said.

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

A senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told AFP that the group's "weapons will not be subject to any negotiations".

Two Hamas officials said on 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".

"It's expected the talks will wrap up soon -- possibly even today," the official said.

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.