Key Points
- A string of Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 40 people, according to medics.
- The Israeli military has accused Hamas of exploiting civilians for military purposes, an allegation Hamas denies.
- Fears of escalating tension in the region have followed the assassinations of key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
Israeli forces have stepped up airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 40 people, in further battle with Hamas-led militants as Israel braces for potential wider war in the region.
Israeli airstrikes hit a cluster of houses in central Gaza's al-Bureij camp, killing at least 15 people, and the nearby al-Nuseirat camp, killing four, medics said on Thursday.
Nuseirat and Bureij are among the densely populated enclave's eight historic camps and are seen by Israel as strongholds of armed militants.
Israeli airstrikes also struck a house in the heart of Gaza City in the north, killing five Palestinians, while another strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed one person and wounded others, according to medics.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas command and control centres embedded in the Abdel-Fattah Hamouda and Al-Zahra (pictured) schools in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. Source: Getty / Omar al-Qattaa
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas command and control centres embedded in the Abdel-Fattah Hamouda and Al-Zahra schools in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, where it said Hamas militants were operating.
It accused Hamas of exploiting civilians and civilian properties for military purposes, an allegation Hamas denies.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were firing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating across Gaza, causing deaths and injuries among them.
Israel's military said it had struck dozens of military targets across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including rocket launching pads.
The Israeli military renewed evacuation orders to Palestinian residents in several districts in eastern Khan Younis, saying it would act forcefully against militants who had unleashed rockets from those areas.
Increasing tension in the region
As Gaza's war churns on, Israel has been battening down for another attack expected in the coming days following vows from Iran and its Lebanon proxy Hezbollah to retaliate for the assassinations last week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and .
A relatively contained conflict between Israel and Hezbollah along its northern border, a spillover from the Gaza fighting, now threatens to spiral into an all-out regional war.
Hamas-led militants set off the Gaza war on 7 October with a shock, cross-border rampage into Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and seizing some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, at least 39,699 Palestinians have been killed, including 22 within the past 24 hours, and 91,722 injured in Israel's devastating air and ground war in Gaza, the Gaza health ministry said in an update on Thursday.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its death lists.
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UN sacks staff accused of involvement in October attacks
SBS News
06/08/202404:09
World Central Kitchen worker killed
On Thursday, the World Central Kitchen (WCK), a US-based, non-governmental humanitarian agency, said that a Palestinian staff member, Nadi Sallout, had been killed while apparently off duty on Wednesday near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The WCK said it was seeking further details.
The Israeli military said it did not know of any such incident, adding that it had been in contact with WCK.
In April, seven WCK employees — including — were , prompting the charity to suspend operations in Gaza for nearly a month.
Israel said at the time its inquiries had found serious errors and breaches of procedure by its military, and that two senior officers had been dismissed and senior commanders reprimanded.
