It said the “incident caused a mass casualty influx at the nearby Red Cross Field Hospital,” which received 22 bodies and 45 injured, with “reports of additional casualties.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said a total of 25 people were killed and 50 wounded in the attack, and accused “the Israeli occupation targeting the tents of displaced civilians” in Mawasi.
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In a statement to The Washington Post on Saturday, the Israeli military said that an initial inquiry suggested there was “no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF in the Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi,” adding that the incident is under review.
Separately on Friday, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres pleaded for “reason and rationality” as he expressed his “profound concerns” over the risk of an all-out war between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel.
Addressing reporters Friday, Guterres said there had been an escalation of exchanges of fire and in “bellicose rhetoric from both sides, as if an all-out war was imminent.”
“One rash move, one miscalculation, could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination,” he said. “Let’s be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”
Earlier this week, the Israeli military said it had “approved and validated” operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon, as Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned on social media that “in an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit.” The same day Hezbollah, an Iranian-allied military force and Lebanon’s strongest political party, said it had new weapons and intelligence capabilities that could be used in case of a full-scale war.
The two sides have been exchanging fire since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel — the worst fighting between the two foes since a deadly, month-long war in 2006.
Yemen’s Houthi fighters are threatening some of the world’s most vital shipping routes despite months of U.S.-led airstrikes, as The Washington Post reports. The once ragtag rebels are drawing from an arsenal of increasingly advanced weapons to attack vessels in and around the Red Sea, sinking one ship and setting another ablaze just this month.
Around 39,000 Palestinian students are unable to take their final high school exams, which were to begin on Saturday, due to the war in Gaza, Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported. According to humanitarian groups, some 625,000 students have been out of school since the war began in October.
An Israeli citizen was shot dead in the town of Qalqilya on Saturday, according to the Israeli Defense forces. The IDF said it was operating in the town in the occupied West Bank after the killing, which Israeli media report was the second killing of an Israeli in the town in recent days.
Cuba announced that it intends to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice, according to a statement from its Foreign Ministry released Friday. Earlier this month, Spain became the first European country to ask to join the case; other countries including Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya have requested to join, according to the Associated Press.
A senior State Department official and skeptic of the Biden administration’s “bear hug” approach to the government of Israel resigned this week in a setback for U.S. diplomats pushing for a sharper break with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition, said three people familiar with the matter.
At least 37,551 people have been killed and 85,911 injured in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 312 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations in Gaza