GAZA STRIP (AFP) – Israeli shelling near a southern Gaza hospital has killed 41 people over the past two days, the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) said, after Israel stepped up its attacks in the centre and south of the besieged territory.
The United Nations (UN) humanitarian office said on Thursday that an estimated 100,000 more displaced people had arrived in the already-teeming southern border city of Rafah in recent days following the intensification of fighting around Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis.
The extra displacements came as Egyptian officials received a high-level Hamas delegation in Cairo yesterday for talks on a new proposal aimed at putting an end to nearly three months of war that has devastated Gaza.
The PRCS on Thursday condemned what it said was Israeli shelling near the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis that “led to the martyrdom of ten people and the injury of at least 21 others”, adding the attack followed one in front of the hospital the day before that killed 31.
“Among the casualties are individuals present in front of the hospital and displaced persons seeking shelter at the PRCS premises,” the group said in a statement.
Later in the day, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli shelling had killed 20 people, most of them women and children, at the Shaboura camp in Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt.
AFP footage from the city showed bloodied people being rushed through the streets to the nearby Kuwaiti hospital, where medical staff raced to treat a flood of wounded patients, including children. AFP could not immediately confirm whether they were victims of the same strike.
More than 80 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been driven from their homes, the UN said, and many now live in cramped shelters or makeshift tents in the far south around Rafah.
Residents there combed through rubble for survivors on Thursday after an air strike that one witness said left “several casualties”.
“We were sitting (at home) peacefully and all of a sudden we heard a loud explosion and debris started falling on us. The apartment was completely destroyed and my daughters were screaming,” said Tayseer Abu Al-Eish.
An Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling blockade, has deprived Gazans of food, water, fuel and medicine.
The severe shortages have been only sporadically eased by humanitarian aid convoys entering primarily via Egypt.
Israel said on Thursday it had given preliminary approval to the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus for a “maritime lifeline” to ship aid to Gaza.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo yesterday to give its “observations” about an Egyptian plan for a ceasefire recently put to officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which is also battling Israeli forces in Gaza.
Sources close to Hamas said Cairo’s three-stage plan provides for renewable ceasefires, a staggered release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and ultimately a ceasefire to end the war.
It also provides for a Palestinian government of technocrats after talks involving “all Palestinian factions”, which would be responsible for governing and rebuilding in post-war Gaza.
A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Thursday that the delegation would “give the response of the Palestinian factions, including several observations” regarding details of the exchanges and “guarantees for a complete Israeli military withdrawal”.
Diaa Rashwan, who heads Egypt’s State Information Services, said the plan was “intended to bring together the views of all parties concerned, with the aim of ending the shedding of Palestinian blood”.
