Deadly Israeli strikes hit Al-Mawasi 'safe zone', Nuseirat, Gaza City

Hamas's armed wing says it bombed Israeli forces southeast of Gaza City's Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood.

Al-Qassam Brigades say they used high-calibre mortars.

Israeli Apache helicopters opened fire on the eastern parts of Gaza City's Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood.

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday, the militant group said, as a US envoy tasked with avoiding a devastating regional war returned to Israel after meeting officials in Lebanon.

Lebanese state media reported multiple Israeli strikes along the border and in an area north of the coastal city of Tyre, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the frontier.

The Israeli military said two Hezbollah launches damaged several vehicles in northern Israel.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, was back in Israel after meetings in Lebanon on Tuesday. There has been no word on whether he has made progress in his efforts to avoid a wider war.

An Israeli air raid targeted Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Artillery shelling targets the southern parts of Al-Sabra neighbourhood northeast of Gaza City, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

The number of people killed in Gaza since Israel's war on the strip began has increased to 37,396, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry says.

It adds that 85,523 people have been injured.

The ministry says Israel carried out three "massacres against the families in the Gaza Strip" with 24 killed and 71 injured arriving at hospitals in the last 24 hours.

The number of people killed in the Israeli bombing of tents for displaced people in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza has risen to eight, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Europe has a duty to host children hurt and traumatised by war in Gaza for as long as the fighting continues, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis told Reuters on Wednesday.

Gerapetritis is seeking partners in what he hopes would be a project to temporarily bring the children to the European Union, and said he discussed the idea with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa this week.

"We need to face this tragedy very clearly," Gerapetritis said. "Europe should be open to injured people from [Gaza] but also to children who are now facing famine or other sorts of dangers."

Greece was elected as a member of the United Nations Security Council for 2025–2026 earlier this month, and Gerapetritis believes the country's historical ties with the Arab world give it credibility to act as a peace broker.

The 56-year old, who has held the post for a year, did not say how many people could be hosted by Greece or the EU but said the issue was under discussion with Palestinian authorities.

Gerapetritis stressed that the initiative was not linked to regular migration, which has become politically sensitive in Europe and strongly opposed by a resurgent right.

"This is an obvious call of humanitarian assistance. We're not talking here about economic migrants or other types of irregular migration," he said, days after far-right parties surged in European parliamentary elections.

(Reuters)

Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in their Gaza Strip military campaign, the United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday.

In a report assessing six Israeli attacks that caused a high number of casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, the UN human rights office said Israeli forces "may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack".

"The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 37,400 people in the Palestinian territory, according to health authorities there.

Last week the UN human rights office said the killing of civilians during an Israeli operation to free four hostages could amount to war crimes, but so might Palestinian militants' holding of captives in densely populated areas.

(Reuters)