[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Israeli protesters step up push for Gaza truce deal

Israeli protesters chanting ‘we will not give up’ marched through Tel Aviv on Sunday, the second consecutive day of demonstrations in a stepped-up push for a deal to free...

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Israeli protesters step up push for Gaza truce deal
Agence France-Presse . Tel Aviv 08 July, 2024, 00:51

Women in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv take part in a demonstration for the release of hostages still held by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. | AFP photo

Israeli protesters chanting 'we will not give up' marched through Tel Aviv on Sunday, the second consecutive day of demonstrations in a stepped-up push for a deal to free hostages in Gaza.

A nationwide 'disruption day' began at 6:29 am, corresponding to the start of Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that set off the war.

After nine months of fighting, Israel says 116 captives are still held by militants in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.

'Enough is enough,' said Orly Nativ, a 57-year-old social worker from Tel Aviv who joined the hundreds of flag-wielding demonstrators.

They stopped traffic at an intersection in Tel Aviv, calling for the government to secure a deal to free the hostages still held by Palestinian militants Hamas.

'The government doesn't care what the people think, and they don't do anything to bring back our sisters and brothers from Gaza and take care of us and take care of what happened after October 7th,' Nativ said.

Another demonstrator, Yoni Peleg, called it 'a last cry out for help from the entire country to help us end the war, help us get our people.'

In Jerusalem, police stepped up security around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence before a planned rally there.

The night before, thousands of anti-government demonstrators blocked a highway in Tel Aviv. Some clashed with police on horseback before officers deployed water canon to force people from the road.

Protest organisers estimated around 176,000 people had by 9:00pm filled a Tel Aviv intersection which they call 'Democracy Square'. That would make it one of the biggest demonstrations since the war began.

Large protests, also demanding elections, have taken place across the Israeli city every Saturday night, with smaller ones thoughout the country to put pressure on Netanyahu's government to bring the hostages home.

The protests come as indirect truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas have regained momentum after months of failed diplomacy.

Netanyahu has consistently opposed any deal that allows Hamas to survive.

But pressure is mounting as families tire of arguing their loved ones' lives are worth more than declaring victory over Hamas.

'For the first time in many months, we feel there is a spark of hope,' Sachar Mor, a relative of hostage Ofer Kalderon, said at a separate rally held by the hostage families on Saturday night.

'This is an opportunity that cannot be missed.'

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants on that day, Israeli forces have rescued seven of them alive, and 80 Israelis were freed during the war's only truce, which lasted one week in November.

In response to the October 7 attack, Israel's military offensive has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.​

 

[Saif]

Stranded aid trucks deepen Gaza hunger crisis

Hundreds of trucks loaded with food and water have been stranded on a scorching Egyptian road, some for nearly two months, awaiting permission to deliver the much needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

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Stranded aid trucks deepen Gaza hunger crisis

Hundreds of trucks loaded with food and water have been stranded on a scorching Egyptian road, some for nearly two months, awaiting permission to deliver the much needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

About 50 kilometres from the Gaza border, trucks carrying flour, water and other aid line a dusty road in both directions. The drivers say they have been waiting for several weeks in the searing Egyptian summer heat.

The standstill is exacerbating Gaza's dire humanitarian crisis after nine months of offensive. Aid groups warn there is a high risk of famine across the besieged coastal territory.

The truck drivers, parked on the outskirts of the Egyptian city of al-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, say they have been unable to deliver humanitarian supplies ever since Israel expanded its offensive on the Gaza-Egypt border in May. Some food has had to be discarded, they said.

"I swear to God, before this load, we came here and stood for more than 50 days and eventually the load was returned because it had expired," said truck driver Elsayed el-Nabawi. Israeli military started its assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah in May.​

 

[Saif]

Famine has spread throughout Gaza

The recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip indicate that famine has spread throughout the enclave, a group of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations said yesterday.

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Famine has spread throughout Gaza
Say UN experts after recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition

Palestinians collect water from a Unicef tanker in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. Israel pushed on with a major military offensive in Gaza City that the UN said has once again displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians. Photo: REUTERS

The recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip indicate that famine has spread throughout the enclave, a group of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations said yesterday.

Gaza health authorities say at least 33 children have died of malnutrition, mostly in northern areas which had until recently faced the brunt of the Israeli military campaign.

Since early May, the offensive has spread to southern Gaza, hitting aid flows into the enclave amid restrictions by Israel, which has accused UN agencies of failing to distribute supplies efficiently.

In yesterday's statement, the group of 11 rights experts cited the deaths of three children aged 13, 9-years-old and six months from malnutrition in the southern area of Khan Younis and the central area of Deir Al-Balah since the end of May.


"With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza," the experts said.

Their statement, signed by experts including the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, condemned "Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people".

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said the statement amounted to "misinformation".

"Israel has continuously scaled up its coordination and assistance in the delivery of humanitarian aid across the Gaza Strip, recently connecting its power line to the Gaza water desalination plant," it added.​

 

[Saif]

Israel continues onslaught on eve of new truce talks

Israeli forces in war-ravaged Gaza City pushed on with a major offensive on Tuesday that has again displaced Palestinians, as UN experts said children were dying in a ‘starvation campaign’...

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Israel continues onslaught on eve of new truce talks
Agence France-Presse . Palestine 09 July, 2024, 23:37

Israeli forces in war-ravaged Gaza City pushed on with a major offensive on Tuesday that has again displaced Palestinians, as UN experts said children were dying in a 'starvation campaign'.

Troops, tanks and fighter jets swooped on Gaza's biggest urban area on the eve of new contacts in Qatar aiming for an eventual hostage-prisoner exchange and a truce in the war raging into its 10th month.

CIA director William Burns and Israel's Mossad chief David Barnea are due to travel to Qatar on Wednesday, after Burns held talks with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.

Hamas has accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately escalating fighting in Gaza City and Rafah, in the territory's south, to thwart an agreement.

The Islamist group's Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh said he had made 'urgent contact' with mediators, warning that the 'catastrophic consequences' of the latest battles could 'reset the negotiation process to square one'.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, described the fighting in Gaza City in recent days as 'the most intense in months'.

Militants were fighting with rockets, mortars and explosives, it said.

After almost two weeks of battles in Gaza City's eastern Shujaiya district, Israeli forces have extended the fighting into the city's east, west and south.

Residents reported helicopter strikes, 'explosions and numerous gun battles' in the city's southwest.

The United Nations said tens of thousands of civilians have been affected by the surge in fighting since the first of three evacuation orders for Gaza City was declared on June 27.

Thousands were seen marching down dusty roads past bombed-out buildings, with mothers carrying babies and others packing belongings onto donkey carts.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was 'appalled' at the way civilians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, have been ordered to head to areas where 'military operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injured'.

Gaza City residents have now been told to move south to Deir al-Balah, which the UN office said 'is already seriously overcrowded' with displaced Palestinians.

Separately, independent UN rights experts accused Israel of carrying out a 'targeted starvation campaign' that has resulted in the deaths of Gazan children.

'Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence,' the experts said in a statement.

'Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since October 7, the majority being children,' said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

Israeli military offensive has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The toll includes at least 50 killed over the past 24 hours, said a ministry statement on Tuesday.

Qatar and Egypt, supported by the United States, have been engaged in months of behind-the-scenes contacts to start truce talks and organise an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Hamas has signalled that it would drop its insistence on a 'complete' ceasefire — which Israel had repeatedly rejected — as a condition for starting talks.

Netanyahu's has set out conditions for talks, including that 'any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved', including the destruction of Hamas.

As the Gaza war has raged on, Israel has also exchanged regular cross-border fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah, allies of Hamas, heightening fears of an all-out war.

Hezbollah on Tuesday released a video showing aerial surveillance footage it said was taken over intelligence and military positions in the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan Heights.

The Lebanese government has supported the implementation of Resolution 1701, which called for armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border with Israel.​

 

[Saif]

Israel orders Gaza evacuation after 29 killed at schools

Israel’s army dropped thousands of leaflets over war-torn Gaza City on Wednesday urging all residents to flee a heavy offensive through the main city of the besieged Palestinian territory...

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Israel orders Gaza evacuation after 29 killed at schools
Agence France-Presse . Palestine 11 July, 2024, 01:18

Israel's army dropped thousands of leaflets over war-torn Gaza City on Wednesday urging all residents to flee a heavy offensive through the main city of the besieged Palestinian territory.

The leaflets, addressed to 'everyone in Gaza City', set out designated escape routes and warned that the urban area, which had a pre-war population of over half a million, would 'remain a dangerous combat zone'.

Across Gaza, deadly strikes have hit four schools in four days, sparking rebukes from France and Germany which both labelled the attacks 'unacceptable'.

'We call for these strikes to be fully investigated,' said the French foreign ministry, highlighting a deadly strike on Tuesday on a school near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

'It is unacceptable that schools, especially those housing civilians displaced by the fighting, should be targeted.'

A deadly strike hit a school turned shelter in southern Gaza on Tuesday as Israeli forces in the war-ravaged territory's main city pushed on with a major offensive that has again displaced Palestinians.

A hospital source in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza said at least 29 people were killed when the school was hit in nearby Abasan.

Three previous Israeli strikes since Saturday on schools across Gaza used by displaced Palestinians have killed a total of at least 20 people, according to officials and rescuers.​

 

[Saif]

MSF facing ‘critical’ medical supply shortage

Aid group Doctors Without Borders has warned of “critical” shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, with no resupply for more than two months as fighting between Israel and Hamas wears on.

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ISRAELI OFFENSIVE IN GAZA
MSF facing 'critical' medical supply shortage

Aid group Doctors Without Borders has warned of "critical" shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, with no resupply for more than two months as fighting between Israel and Hamas wears on.

The group known by its French initials MSF is "facing critical shortages of many things like gauze, gloves... things like that," Amber Alayyan, who works on the Palestinian territories for its French branch, told AFP on Wednesday.

The aid group warned last week in a statement it had been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since the end of April and called on Israel to open more crossing points into the territory.

MSF staff have shifted to changing wound dressings every four days rather than the usual two to save on supplies

"We're seeing people who are injured in bombings, in shootings, in drone attacks," Alayyan said.

"We're seeing people who are living in such poor conditions that they're cooking on the floor."

MSF staff have shifted to changing wound dressings every four days rather than the usual two to save on supplies, paediatrician Alayyan added.

MSF now risks running out of vital medication such as anaesthetics needed for surgery.

"If we have to continue going like this... we won't be able to operate. We won't operate without anaesthesia," Alayyan said.

UNRWA, the United Nations body responsible for Palestinian refugees, estimated last month that around 10 children per day were losing one or both legs in Gaza.

Where MSF is involved, "most of the amputations... are being done as life-saving amputations," Alayyan said.

Afterwards, "we don't even have enough wheelchairs in our own hospital... much less prosthetic devices", she added.

With around 88,000 people wounded in Gaza, according to the health ministry, it will be a "proper catastrophe for years to come in terms of post-operative care, wound care, amputations, prosthetics", Alayyan said.

"Gaza itself needs to be rebuilt. So it's going to have to be rebuilt with wheelchair-accessible ramps all over the place for the thousands of people who are going to be in wheelchairs," she said.

"The offensive needs to stop... the healthcare system is completely destroyed."

After initially blocking all deliveries into Gaza, Israel reopened Kerem Shalom in December under international pressure.

An average of 250 trucks now cross the checkpoint daily according to COGAT, still well below UN figure of 500 aid and commercial trucks before the offensive.

Independent UN rights experts accused Israel on Tuesday of a "targeted starvation campaign" in the Gaza, where they said 34 Palestinians have died of malnutrition since October.​

 

[Saif]

Biden, US complicit in alleged war crimes

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said US President Joe Biden and his administration are complicit in what he called Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the Gaza conflict, and he called for sanctions against Israel.

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Biden, US complicit in alleged war crimes
Says Erdogan

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Tairharfa yesterday. Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group Hamas, have exchanged near daily cross-border fire since the Gaza offensive began on October 7, stoking fears of an escalation into all-out war. Photo: AFP

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said US President Joe Biden and his administration are complicit in what he called Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the Gaza conflict, and he called for sanctions against Israel.
In an interview with Newsweek during the Nato summit in Washington, Erdogan said Israel's "brutal murder" of civilians, its strikes on hospitals, aid centres and elsewhere constituted war crimes.

"The US administration, however, disregards these violations and provides Israel with the most support. They do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations," Erdogan was quoted as saying.​

 

[Saif]

Battles rock Gaza City after mass evacuation order

Heavy combat and bombardment hit Gaza City and other parts of the Palestinian territory on Friday as mediators pushed on with efforts to halt the war raging into its...

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Battles rock Gaza City after mass evacuation order
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 13 July, 2024, 00:43

People walk on rubble at the damaged UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees building complex in western Gaza City's Al-Sinaa neighbouhood on Friday, following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant Hamas group in the besieged Palestinian territory. | AFP photo

Heavy combat and bombardment hit Gaza City and other parts of the Palestinian territory on Friday as mediators pushed on with efforts to halt the war raging into its tenth month.

US President Joe Biden said at a NATO summit in Washington on Thursday that US diplomats, despite problems, were making 'progress' with international mediators towards a ceasefire and stressed that 'it's time to end this war'.

Media linked to the territory's rulers Hamas, whose October 7 attack sparked the bloodiest ever Gaza conflict, said that Israeli forces had launched more than 70 new air strikes.

Gaza's health ministry reported 32 deaths, saying that the 'martyrs, a majority of them children and women, were taken to hospitals overnight, because of continued massacres'.

Israel's military said it was also fighting in the Rafah area, in the south, where its troops had 'eliminated numerous terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes'.

A major focus of recent battles and mass displacement has been the biggest urban area, Gaza City, where two weeks of fighting devastated the eastern district of Shujaiya.

Gaza's civil defence agency said dozens of bodies have been found under the rubble of what was now a 'disaster zone', with 85 percent of buildings uninhabitable.

Gaza City had been the focus of Israeli ground operations early in the war.

Israeli troops and tanks have, since Shujaiya, swept into other Gaza City districts to fight Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including in the vacated headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinians UNRWA.

The army dropped thousands of leaflets Wednesday urging all Gaza City residents to flee the 'dangerous combat zone' — an area where the United Nations said up to 350,000 people were staying.

One of the newly displaced, Umm Ihab Arafat, sat with her children on a sand pile amid the rubble as the incessant hum of Israeli drones filled the sky.

'I have been displaced four times,' she said, pleading for a break for her and her children. 'They are entitled to rest, their eyes are full of horror and fear'.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that 'entire families are trapped and desperately seek security. The huge needs are beyond our capacity to respond'.

The ICRC said Gaza City's people had been instructed to move south "to areas that are overcrowded, lacking in essential services and are experiencing hostilities".

Israel and Hamas have engaged in months of indirect talks via Qatari and Egyptian mediators to reach a so far elusive truce and hostage release deal.

At the latest meeting in Doha on Wednesday, Israeli and US officials talked conditions for peace with Qatari mediators.

The head of Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency Ronen Bar was headed for talks in Cairo, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

Netanyahu again insisted that any deal must allow Israel to meet its war aims of bringing home all hostages and destroying Hamas.

He also said Israel needs to maintain control of Gaza's southern border to prevent 'weapons to be smuggled to Hamas from Egypt'.

A leading South African judge, whose country has brought Israel to the top world court over Gaza, said "hardly anything" will deter Israel's offensive.

Biden has laid out what he called an Israeli plan which would see a six week truce in which hostages held in Gaza and Palestinians in Israeli prisons would be freed. A second phase would see talks on a full end to the war.

Biden acknowledged Thursday that "difficult, complex issues" remain but insisted that 'we're making progress'. 'The trend is positive,' he said, 'and I'm determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now.'

Biden also stood firm on his decision to hold up delivery of massive 2,000-pound bombs, over concerns they could be used in populated areas, even as his administration moves forward on sending Israel less powerful 500-pound munitions.

He again pressed Israel for a 'day-after' plan for Gaza and spoke of his diplomacy 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 during ceasefire negotiations, said Hossam Badran, a member of the group's political bureau.

The war started after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Israel also imposed a punishing siege on the territory of 2.4 million people, pushing many to the brink of starvation.

The World Health Organization said that only five trucks carrying medical supplies were allowed into Gaza last week, while over 70 more are waiting at the border.

A problem-plagued US effort to get aid in by sea will soon end permanently, the United States military said.

US troops built the $230-million pier but the temporary facility has been repeatedly damaged by poor weather.

Biden said he had been 'hopeful that would be more successful'.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas for independent Palestinian government in post-war Gaza

Hamas is suggesting during ceasefire negotiations that an independent government of non-partisan figures run Gaza after war and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a member of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s political bureau said Friday....

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Hamas for independent Palestinian government in post-war Gaza
Agence France-Presse. Gaza City 12 July, 2024, 21:59

Palestinians make their way over the dirty of rubble past destroyed buildings after the Israeli military withdrew following a two-week offensive from the Shujaiya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City on July 11, 2024. | AFP photo

Hamas is suggesting during ceasefire negotiations that an independent government of non-partisan figures run Gaza after war and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a member of the Palestinian Islamist movement's political bureau said Friday.

'We proposed that a non-partisan national competency government manage Gaza and the West Bank after the war,' Hossam Badran said in a statement about the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas with mediation from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.

'The administration of Gaza after the war is a Palestinian internal matter without any external interference, and we will not discuss the day after the war in Gaza with any external parties', Badran added.

A Hamas official told AFP the proposal for a non-partisan government was made 'with the mediators'.

The government will 'manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the initial phase after the war, paving the way for general elections' said the official, who did not want his name disclosed.

Badran's remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Israel retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, Gaza territory along the border with Egypt. This condition conflicts with Hamas's position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire.

Netanyahu said on Thursday that control of the Philadelphi corridor is part of efforts to prevent 'weapons to be smuggled to Hamas from Egypt.'

The negotiations are occurring in Doha, Qatar and Cairo, Egypt with the aim of bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza as well as the return of hostages still held there by Hamas.

The war began on October 7 with Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

At least 71 killed in Israeli airstrikes at Gaza humanitarian camp

Israel says it target Hamas military chief, Hamas denies

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At least 71 killed in Israeli airstrikes at Gaza humanitarian camp
Israel says it target Hamas military chief, Hamas denies

Palestinians react near damage, following what Palestinians say was an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Mohammed Salem

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 71 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza on Saturday, the enclave's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' military chief Mohammed Deif.

Hamas said in a statement that Israeli claims that it had targeted leaders of the group were false and aimed at justifying the attack.

The Israeli military said that the strike against Deif also targeted Rafa Salama, the commander of Hamas' Khan Younis Brigade, describing them as two of the masterminds of the October 7 attack that triggered the nine-month war in Gaza.

Deif has survived seven Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021 and has topped Israel's most wanted list for decades, held responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.

The Gaza health ministry said at least 71 Palestinians had been killed in the strike and 289 injured, the deadliest toll in weeks.

Al-Mawasi is a designated humanitarian area to which the Israeli army has repeatedly urged Palestinians to head to after issuing evacuation orders from other areas.

The Israeli military published an aerial photo of the site, which Reuters was not immediately able to verify, where it said "terrorists hid among civilians".

"The location of the strike was an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds," it said in a statement.

A military official told journalists in an online briefing the area was not a tent complex, but an operational compound run by Hamas and that several more militants were there, guarding Deif.

It was unclear whether Deif was killed. "We are still checking and verifying the results of the strike," the military official said.

Many of those wounded in the strike were taken to the nearby Nasser Hospital, which hospital officials said had been overwhelmed and was "no longer able to function" due to the intensity of the Israeli offensive and an acute shortage of medical supplies.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was holding special consultations, his office said, in light of "developments in Gaza". It was unclear how the strike would affect ceasefire talks underway in Doha and Cairo.

The Hamas-run media office said at least 100 people had been killed and wounded, including members of the Civil Emergency Service.

A senior Hamas official did not confirm whether Deif had been present and called the Israeli allegations "nonsense".

"All the martyrs are civilians and what happened was a grave escalation of the war of genocide, backed by the American support and world silence," Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding the strike showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire deal.

Separately, at least 10 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a prayer hall at a Gaza camp for displaced people West of Gaza City, Palestinian health officials said.

ATTACK 'SURPRISING', SAY WITNESSES

Reuters footage showed ambulances racing towards the area amidst clouds of smoke and dust. Displaced people, including women and children, were fleeing in panic, some holding belongings in their hands.

Witnesses said the attack came as a surprise as the area had been calm, adding more than one missile had been fired. Some of the wounded who were being evacuated were rescue workers, they said.

"They're all gone, my whole family's gone.. where are my brothers? They're all gone, they're all gone. There's no one left," said one tearful woman, who did not give her name.

"Our children are in pieces, they are in pieces. Shame (on you)," she added.

Rising up the Hamas ranks over 30 years, Deif developed the group's network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise, Hamas sources say.

In March, Israel said it killed Deif's deputy, Marwan Issa. Hamas has since neither confirmed, nor denied his death.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel has retaliated by military action in Gaza that has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, medical authorities in Gaza say.​