Palestinian officials say Israeli attack killed at least 40 in humanitarian area
JERUSALEM — Emergency officials said Tuesday an Israeli missile strike on a humanitarian area in the southern Gaza Strip killed and injured dozens of people.
The attack happened in Mawasi, just west of Khan Younis, which has been home to many Palestinians who fled other areas of Gaza to escape the conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA cited medical officials saying the attack killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck “significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center.”
A Hamas statement denied its fighters were in the area.
Video circulating on social media showed several deep craters with people using shovels and their hands to try to dig through debris and sand.
Cease-fire effort
The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that the United Nations has offered to help monitor any eventual cease-fire to halt the war in Gaza, but that it is “unrealistic” to think that the world agency would directly administer the territory or provide a peacekeeping force.
Guterres told The Associated Press in an interview, “The U.N. will be available to support any cease-fire,” but said he did not believe Israel would accept a broader role for the U.N. As the Israeli-Hamas conflict raged over the last 11 months, Israel accused a small number of U.N. workers of joining Hamas militants in their shock October 7 attack on Israel that started the war.
The United Nations has had a military monitoring mission in the Middle East, known as UNTSO, since 1948. Guterres said that offering to monitor a cease-fire “was one of the hypotheses that we've put on the table." But the months-long cease-fire talks have stalemated.
"Of course, we'll be ready to do whatever the international community asked for us," Guterres said. "The question is whether the parties would accept it, and in particular whether Israel would accept it."
Stressing the urgency of a cease-fire now, Guterres said, "The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my (seven-year) mandate as secretary-general of the United Nations. I've never seen such a level of death and destruction as we are seeing in Gaza in the last few months."
Separately, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said Monday that ending the war in Gaza “and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority.”
“We know that wars spill over, and into, future generations, fostering repeated cycles of hatred if their causes remain unaddressed,” Türk told a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “Sadly, the war in Gaza is the quintessential example.”
Türk highlighted the “horrific” Hamas attack on Israel, the forcible displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza, the 101 Israelis still being held hostage in Gaza, and Israel’s “deadly and destructive operations” in the West Bank that are “worsening a calamitous situation.”
The war was triggered by the October Hamas attack on southern Israel last year that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, although the Israeli military says the death toll includes several thousand militants.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
The attack happened in Mawasi, just west of Khan Younis, which has been home to many Palestinians who fled other areas of Gaza to escape the conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA cited medical officials saying the attack killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck “significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center.”
A Hamas statement denied its fighters were in the area.
Video circulating on social media showed several deep craters with people using shovels and their hands to try to dig through debris and sand.
Cease-fire effort
The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that the United Nations has offered to help monitor any eventual cease-fire to halt the war in Gaza, but that it is “unrealistic” to think that the world agency would directly administer the territory or provide a peacekeeping force.
Guterres told The Associated Press in an interview, “The U.N. will be available to support any cease-fire,” but said he did not believe Israel would accept a broader role for the U.N. As the Israeli-Hamas conflict raged over the last 11 months, Israel accused a small number of U.N. workers of joining Hamas militants in their shock October 7 attack on Israel that started the war.
The United Nations has had a military monitoring mission in the Middle East, known as UNTSO, since 1948. Guterres said that offering to monitor a cease-fire “was one of the hypotheses that we've put on the table." But the months-long cease-fire talks have stalemated.
"Of course, we'll be ready to do whatever the international community asked for us," Guterres said. "The question is whether the parties would accept it, and in particular whether Israel would accept it."
Stressing the urgency of a cease-fire now, Guterres said, "The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my (seven-year) mandate as secretary-general of the United Nations. I've never seen such a level of death and destruction as we are seeing in Gaza in the last few months."
Separately, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said Monday that ending the war in Gaza “and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority.”
“We know that wars spill over, and into, future generations, fostering repeated cycles of hatred if their causes remain unaddressed,” Türk told a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “Sadly, the war in Gaza is the quintessential example.”
Türk highlighted the “horrific” Hamas attack on Israel, the forcible displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza, the 101 Israelis still being held hostage in Gaza, and Israel’s “deadly and destructive operations” in the West Bank that are “worsening a calamitous situation.”
The war was triggered by the October Hamas attack on southern Israel last year that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, although the Israeli military says the death toll includes several thousand militants.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.