Israel renews Gaza camp strikes as UN warns of 'war crimes'

RAFAH, Nov 02 (AFP/AP): Israel hit Gaza's largest refugee camp with renewed air strikes Wednesday, prompting UN rights officials to warn that targeting densely populated residential areas "could amount to war crimes."

Bombs struck the Jabalia camp for a second time in two days, pulverising buildings and, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, killing dozens of people.

AFP witnessed extensive damage at the scene, with people frantically clawing through rubble to extract bloodied casualties. Israel said its fighter jets had carried out the strike, targeting "a Hamas command and control complex" and "eliminating" an undefined number of militants.

Rescuers said "whole families" had died, but casualty details could not be immediately confirmed. Israel has hit 11,000-plus targets in Gaza since October 7 -- when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel and killed 1,400 people, including many civilians who were shot in cold blood.

Iran, Turkey call for meeting

to avert spread of war

Turkey and Iran on Wednesday called for a regional conference aimed at averting the spread of the Israel-Hamas war.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian a day after Iran's top diplomat met Hamas leaders in Qatar.

Iran has warned that armed groups it supports in the region could attack Israel in light of its war on Hamas.

Fidan said Turkey was pushing for an immediate ceasefire because "it is not difficult to predict that this spiral of violence will grow" without a permanent solution to the war.

Egypt to help evacuate 'about

7,000' foreigners from Gaza

Egypt will help evacuate "about 7,000" foreigners and dual nationals from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the foreign ministry said, with officials saying some 400 people were expected to cross Thursday.

For the first time after weeks of deadly fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants, the Rafah border crossing opened on Wednesday to let people out of Gaza.

In a meeting with foreign diplomats, assistant foreign minister Ismail Khairat said Egypt was preparing "to facilitate the reception and evacuation of foreign citizens from Gaza through the Rafah crossing", a ministry statement said.

Khairat said that involved "about 7,000" people of "more than 60" nationalities, but the statement offered no specific details or a timeline.

Biden calls for humanitarian

'pause' in Israel-Hamas war

President Joe Biden said he thought there should be a humanitarian "pause" in the Israel-Hamas war, after his campaign speech Wednesday evening was interrupted by a protester calling for a cease-fire. "I think we need a pause," Biden said.

The call was a subtle departure for Biden and top White House aides, who throughout the Mideast crisis have been steadfast in stating they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

But the president has faced intensifying pressure from human rights groups, fellow world leaders and even liberal members of his own Democratic Party, who say that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza is collective punishment and that it is time for a cease-fire.