Israeli forces have again bombed the so-called “safe zone” in Gaza’s al-Mawasi, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens more, according to Atif al-Hout, the director of the Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. Our correspondents say women and children were “incinerated” in the attack.
Meanwhile, Hamas has welcomed a report by Amnesty International accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza and called for world action.
The group said in a statement that the report was “a new message to the international community … on the need to act to bring an end to this genocide that has lasted for more than 400 days”.
Louise Wateridge, UNRWA’s emergency officer currently in Gaza, says the catastrophic humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.
“We are seeing people begging for pieces of bread. Three women were trampled to death just a few days ago, waiting for pieces of bread,” Wateridge said, speaking in front of an empty UNRWA warehouse.
“UNRWA is not permitted by Israeli authorities to use multiple crossings in the Gaza Strip so the community might see that as: ‘Why is UNRWA not going to the crossing? Why is UNRWA not getting the flour?’ We are denied. We are denied,” she said.
Wateridge said people need everything, from water, food, shelter and warm clothes, “anybody else in the world takes for granted, that is what people need here”.
“Children – you cannot tell anymore if they are shivering from the cold or from the fear of drones and bombs around,” she said on X.
Earlier, Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a report published on Thursday.
According to Reuters, the London-based human rights group said it reached the conclusion after months of analysing incidents and statements of Israeli officials. Amnesty said the legal threshold for the crime had been met, in its first such determination during an active armed conflict.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".
Israel has consistently rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.
Israeli officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Amnesty s report.
launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Gaza s Health Ministry says that Israel s military campaign since then has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians and injured many others.
Palestinian and U.N. officials say there are no safe areas left in Gaza, a tiny, densely populated and heavily built-up coastal territory. Most of Gaza s 2.3 million people have been internally displaced, some as many as 10 times.
At hearings earlier this year before the U.N. s International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, where Israel faces accusations of genocide brought by South Africa, lawyers for the country denied the charge. They argued that there was no genocidal intent and no genocide in Israel s conduct of the war, whose stated objective is the eradication of Hamas.
Presenting the report to journalists in The Hague, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the conclusion had not been taken "lightly, politically, or preferentially".
She told journalists after the presentation: "There is a genocide being committed. There is no doubt, not one doubt in our mind after six months of in-depth, focused research."
Israel s military accuses Hamas of planting militants within populated neighbourhoods for operational cover, which Hamas denies, while accusing Israel of indiscriminate strikes.
Callamard said Amnesty had not set out to prove genocide but after reviewing the evidence and statements collectively, she said the only conclusion was that "Israel is intending and has intended to commit genocide".
She added: "The assertion that Israel s war in Gaza aims solely to dismantle Hamas and not to physically destroy Palestinians as a national and ethnic group, that assertion simply does not stand up to scrutiny."
Amnesty urged the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ex-defence minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza - charges they deny, to investigate alleged genocide.
