A house in Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza, was reportedly targeted in an Israeli strike on Thursday. An estimated 150,000 Palestinians are being forced to flee areas of central Gaza, the UN has said, as Israeli forces advance on refugee camps there. Witnesses and Hamas’s armed wing reported that tanks had reached the eastern outskirts of Bureij camp. Israeli bombardment also killed dozens of people across Gaza on Thursday, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed – most of them civilians – and about 240 others were taken hostage. More than 21,300 people have been killed in Gaza – mostly children and women – during 11 weeks of fighting, according to the health ministry.
The IDF has called for the evacuation of a strip of land stretching across central Gaza that includes Bureij and Nuseirat camps, and told the almost 90,000 residents and 61,000 displaced people in the affected areas to move southwards to the town of Deir al-Balah. However, the UN warned on Thursday that they had nowhere to go because Deir al-Balah is already overcrowded, with several hundred thousand displaced people sheltering there.
On Thursday evening, Gaza’s health ministry reported that 20 people had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a building in Rafah that was reportedly housing displaced civilians. On Thursday morning, the ministry’s spokesman announced that 50 people had been killed in Israeli strikes in Maghazi, the northern town of Beit Lahia, and in the southern city of Khan Younis. The deadliest incident was in Beit Lahia, where Palestinian media reported that 30 were killed when a block of four residential buildings was destroyed.
Meanwhile in Israel, thousands of teenagers took part in a march to demand the return of the more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. Negotiations have reportedly been taking place on another deal that could see more hostages released during a temporary pause in the fighting, after one last month saw 105 hostages freed. However, Hamas has publicly insisted that it will only discuss a full ceasefire.
There was also a new call from UN human rights chief Volker Türk urging Israel to stop what he called “unlawful” killings in the occupied West Bank. A report said the UN had verified the killing of 300 Palestinians by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since October 7.
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