Gaza health ministry says dozens killed in camp strike

GAZA STRIP

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said a strike on a displacement camp in the south of the Palestinian territory killed at least 20 people Saturday.

More than 90 others were injured in the strike on Al-Mawasi camp, the ministry said, condemning a "brutal massacre."

It came as the Israeli military pursued attacks in central Gaza with artillery fire and drone strikes heard by an AFP correspondent, while Palestinian medics said one bombing killed a father and his three daughters.

Palestine Red Crescent medics said the strike on a home in Deir al-Balah city killed Rital al-Raey, five, Mai, eight, Leila, nine and their 40-year-old father Mohammed al-Raey.

Their bodies were taken to the city's Al-Aqsa hospital, the medical workers said.

An AFP correspondent in the Palestinian territory, under Israeli military retaliation since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel, reported artillery shelling in southeast Gaza City and the al-Rimal district in the city centre.

The correspondent reported drone strikes at Tal al-Hawa in the southwest of Gaza's main city.

The Civil Defense agency in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that Israeli forces had withdrawn from Tal al-Hawa and other districts, after days of fighting. It said at least 60 bodies had been found in Tal al-Hawa and a neighbouring area after the withdrawal.

On Thursday, the agency said 60 bodies had been found in nearby Shujaiya after Israel ended an operation there. Israel's military said it had killed 150 militants in Shujaiya during a two-week operation against Hamas.

On Saturday the army said operations were continuing in Gaza City as well as "targeted, intelligence-based" missions in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

It said "numerous" tunnels had been destroyed in the Rafah area, and "multiple" Hamas militants killed.

Also in Rafah, the military said it struck a paraglider storage facility used by fighters in the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack during which some militants used the aircraft.

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 85 percent of buildings are now uninhabitable and Shujaiya has been left a "disaster zone".

On Wednesday Israel's army called on all of Gaza City's residents to, for their safety, leave the area which they called "a dangerous combat zone".

The United Nations informed that up to 350,000 people had been staying in the city, and said the latest evacuations "will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times", and who face "critical levels of need".

Israel launched its war on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 38,340 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement in the eastern district of Shujaiya came as talks were held in mediator Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal.

U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that his administration was "making progress" towards a ceasefire agreement as he called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

His statement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that its negotiating team, led by Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea, had returned to Israel following talks with mediators in Doha on Thursday.