Israeli strikes kill 37 in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Apr 17 (AFP): Gaza's civil defence agency reported Thursday that a wave of Israeli air strikes across the territory killed 37 people, most of them displaced Palestinians.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said an overnight strike targeted several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in 16 deaths.

"At least 16 martyrs, most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded following a direct strike by two Israeli missiles on several tents housing displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis," Bassal told AFP.

Bassal also confirmed two other strikes on encampments of displaced people.

One in the northern town of Beit Lahia killed seven people sheltering in tents, while a similar attack on a tent near the Al-Mawasi area left a father and son dead, he said, adding several others were wounded in the strikes.

UN points to worst

humanitarian

crisis in Gaza

Israel's actions, including bombardments and the blockade of humanitarian aid deliveries, have created the worst humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

"Intensive military operations, displacement orders, the blockade on the entry of all aid and commercial supplies and shrinking humanitarian space are driving what is likely the worst humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip since October 2023," the statement reads.

Israel turns 30pc

of Gaza into

buffer zone

Israel announced Wednesday it had converted 30 percent of Gaza into a buffer zone as it pressed its unrelenting military offensive, vowing to maintain its blockade on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered security chiefs and negotiators to keep pressing for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, where Israel resumed air and ground attacks on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.