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• The Guardian
• Thu Apr 17 2025

A wave of Israeli airstrikes on encampments for displaced Palestinians has killed at least 40 people across Gaza, as Hamas officials said consultations on response to Israel truce offer ?almost complete?.

Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit several tents in the al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Younis, resulting in at least 16 deaths, most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded.

Two additional strikes on other encampments of displaced people killed eight and wounded several more, Bassal said.

Seven were killed in a strike on tents in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, while another attack near the al-Mawasi area killed a father and his child who were living in a tent, he said.

?We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under God?s protection, when we suddenly saw something red glowing ? and then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire,? Israa Abu al-Rus told AFP.

?This is supposed to be a safe area in al-Mawasi,? Abu al-Rus said. ?We fled the tent towards the sea and saw the tents burning.?

Separately, civil defence reported two more attacks on displaced people in Jabalia ? one that killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another that killed six people at a school being used as a shelter ? as well as Israeli shelling in Gaza City that killed two.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the strikes, claiming that the army had targeted what it said was a Hamas ?command and control? centre in Jabalia.

Hamas accused Israel of attempting to starve the population of Gaza.

?This is a public admission of committing a war crime, including the use of starvation as a weapon and the denial of basic necessities such as food, medicine, water, and fuel to innocent civilians for the seventh consecutive week,? the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.

The Islamist group?s accusation follows Israeli defence minister Israel Katz?s statement on Wednesday that Israel would keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, as it vowed to force Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages from the 7 October attacks.

??Israel?s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,? Katz said. ?No one is currently planning to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and there are no preparations to enable such aid.?

Aid supplies including food, fuel, water and medicine have been blocked by Israel from entering Gaza since 2 March, more than two weeks before the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group with a return to air and ground attacks on the territory.

The medical charity M?decins Sans Fronti?res said on Wednesday that Gaza was becoming a ?mass grave for Palestinians?.

The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said almost all of Gaza?s more than 2 million people now rely for food on the only 1m prepared meals produced daily by charity kitchens supported by aid groups.



Other food distribution programmes have shut down for lack of supplies, and the UN and other aid organisations have been sending their remaining stocks to the charity kitchens.



The only other way to get food in Gaza is from markets. But most cannot afford to buy there because of spiralling prices and widespread shortages, meaning humanitarian aid is the primary food source for 80% of the population, the World Food Program said in its monthly report for April on Gaza?s markets.



?The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023,? OCHA said.

Meanwhile, two Hamas officials told AFP Thursday that the group?s discussions on an Israeli truce proposal were nearly complete, with a response expected soon.

?These talks are almost complete, and the group will send its response to the mediators once they finish. It?s expected the talks will wrap up soon ? possibly even today,? an official said, with another member of the group confirming his account.

Hamas said Israel had proposed a new 45-day ceasefire through mediators that would include the release of dozens of hostages.

The proposal also called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, a demand the group rejects.

However, a ceasefire agreement still looks distant, as divisions persist between the two sides.

Efforts by mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US to restore the collapsed ceasefire in Gaza and return the hostages have continued to hit stumbling blocks.

Katz said that no matter what deal was agreed, Israeli troops would remain in the buffer zones it had occupied in Gaza, as well as in neighbouring Syria and Lebanon.

Israel?s renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas?s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians.

AFP, AP and Reuters contributed to this report