GAZA, Dec 29 (Agencies): Tens of thousands of newly displaced Gazans huddled under tarpaulins on Friday in the centre of the enclave after fleeing the latest offensive by Israeli tanks, while warplanes targeted the south, flattening homes and burying families as they slept.
Israel is closing the year with new assaults in central and southern Gaza, unleashing a fresh exodus of people already driven from other areas, in what Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called an essential stage of its mission to destroy Hamas.
In the south of the strip in Rafah, Reuters journalists at the scene of one air strike that obliterated a building saw the head of a buried toddler sticking out of the rubble. The child screamed as a rescue worker shielded his head with a hand, while another swung a sledgehammer at a chisel, trying to break up a slab of concrete to free him.
Neighbour Sanad Abu Tabet said the two-story house had been crowded with displaced people. After morning broke, relatives came to collect the dead wrapped up in white shrouds. A man partly unwrapped one, to stroke the face of a dead child.
Tens of thousands of Gazans have been fleeing the crowded central districts of Bureij, Maghazi and Nusseirat, ordered out by Israeli forces whose tanks advanced from the north and east. Most have made their way south or west to the already overwhelmed city of Deir al-Balah, pitching makeshift tents made from sheets of plastic on whatever open ground they could find.
Hamas delegation in Cairo for discussions on Egyptian ceasefire plan
A Hamas delegation is due in Cairo Friday to give its "observations" about an Egyptian plan for a ceasefire that would end the war in Gaza, a Hamas official said.
The plan was put last week to officials of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which is also battling Israeli forces in the territory, when the chiefs of both movements visited the Egyptian capital.
Sources close to Hamas say 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 sparked by the deadly October 7 attack on Israel.
An Arab News adds: Israeli shelling near a southern Gaza hospital has killed 41 people over the past two days, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, after Israel stepped up its attacks in the centre and south of the besieged territory.
UN agency says 40pc of Gaza's population 'at risk of famine'
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that not enough aid is entering besieged Gaza, leaving 40 per cent of its population "at risk of famine" amid Israeli curbs on entry of much-needed aid trucks to enter the enclave.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Thursday renewed its warning that the besieged enclave is "grappling with catastrophic hunger", as it reiterated calls for a "humanitarian ceasefire" as non-stop Israeli bombs rained from the north to the southern part of the enclave. "Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and finding water," Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza was quoted as saying on X, formerly known as Twitter.
NYC protesters for Gaza
ceasefire hold mock funeral
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of New York on Thursday, staging a mock funeral in a demonstration against Israel's continued heavy bombardement of the besieged Gaza strip.
Holding banners demanding an immediate ceasefire, the activists gathered in Manhattan's Bryant Park while some briefly stood in the middle of the busy Sixth Avenue in the heart of New York's Midtown district.
Several women shrouded in black held baby dolls swaddled in white cloths to represent the toll the fighting has taken on children in the coastal territory.
Iran executes four accused of
sabotage, links to Israel's Mossad
Iran executed on Friday four people, including a woman, whom it accused of being "saboteurs" with links to Israel's Mossad intelligence service, the Mizan news agency affiliated to the judiciary said. The executions took to five the number of people put to death this month in a decades-long shadow war that has seen Iran accuse Israel of attacks on its nuclear effort, charges the latter has never confirmed or denied.
"Four members of a sabotage team associated with the Zionist regime ... were executed this morning following legal procedures," the news agency said, accusing them of "extensive" actions, guided by Mossad officers, targeting Iran's security.
Friday's executions in West Azerbaijan province followed Iran's mid-December execution of a fifth accused Mossad agent in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency identified the four executed on Friday as Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, and Rahman Parhazo, along with the woman, named Nasim Namazi.
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