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Dozens dead in Israeli strikes on Gaza, medics say

A Palestinian man inspects the damage in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Khan Younis
A Palestinian man inspects the damage in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Khan Younis

The Israeli military killed at least 39 Palestinians in strikes across Gaza overnight, medics said, 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.

Gaza medics said the 20 confirmed dead in the Israeli strike there included women and children.

Israel said the strike targeted senior Hamas operatives, whom it did not identify.

The strike set several large tents ablaze, and the fire was worsened by the explosion of cooking gas canisters and burning furniture of the displaced people.

The Israeli army says Hamas militants frequently use residential buildings, schools, and hospitals for operational cover

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.

Other Israeli strikes reportedly 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.


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In Rafah, near the borders with Egypt, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians, medics said.

Three others were killed in a separate air strike in Shejaia, in eastern Gaza City, they added.

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Amnesty says Israel committing genocide in Gaza

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.

The London-based human rights group said it reached the conclusion after months of analysing incidents and statements of Israeli officials.

Amnesty said the legal threshold for the crime had been met, in its first such determination during an active armed conflict.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

Amnesty's 300-page report points to "direct deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructures where there was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives" as well as the blocking of aid deliveries, and the displacement of 90% of Gaza's 2.4 million people.

Israel strongly rejected that accusation, denouncing Amnesty as a "deplorable and fanatical organisation".

Amnesty's own branch in Israel distanced itself from the findings of its parent group, saying it had played no part in the research and did not believe Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Amnesty said the legal threshold for genocide had been met

However, in a long statement, it said the killing and destruction in Gaza had reached "horrifying levels" and called for an investigation into possible crimes against humanity.

The US said it disagreed with the conclusions of the report by Amnesty.

"We have said previously and continue to find that the allegations of genocide are unfounded," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

Mr Patel said that the United States, Israel's main weapons supplier and diplomatic ally, remained concerned about the 14-month war in Gaza and distanced himself from Israel's denunciation of Amnesty International as "deplorable and fanatical".

"There continues to be a vital role that civil society organizations like Amnesty International and human rights groups and NGOs play in providing information and analysis as it relates to Gaza".

The US disagreement on the report "does not change the continued concern that we have as it relates to this conflict's impact on civilians and civilian casualties, and we continue to stress at every turn that there is a moral and strategic priority for Israel to comply with international humanitarian law," Mr Patel said.

At a funeral in Khan Younis, where relatives wept over the white-shrouded bodies of people killed the day before, 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 ten days of the war," he said.

Amnesty's report came just two weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. They have both denied the allegations.

Presenting the report to journalists in The Hague, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the conclusion had not been taken "lightly, politically, or preferentially".

She told journalists after the presentation: "There is a genocide being committed. There is no doubt, not one doubt in our mind after six months of in-depth, focused research."

Agnes Callamard said Israel is 'demonstrating its intent to physically destroy' Palestinians in Gaza

Amnesty said it concluded that Israel and the Israeli military committed at least three of the five acts banned by the 1948 Genocide Convention, namely killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about a protected group's physical destruction.

These acts were done with the intent required by the convention, according to Amnesty, which said it reviewed over 100 statements from Israeli officials.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, it has laid much of Gaza to waste, forcing nearly the entire 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.