Israeli

Activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla who hoped to reach Gaza have been deported after being intercepted and detained in Israel. They say Israeli forces denied them food, water and medicine, and describe Greta Thunberg as being especially mistreated.

Several international activists deported from Israel after joining a Gaza aid flotilla have accused Israeli forces of mistreating climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.

The 137 deportees landed in Istanbul on Saturday, including 36 Turkish nationals alongside activists from the United States, Italy, Malaysia, Kuwait, Switzerland, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan and other countries, Turkish officials confirmed.

Turkish journalist and Gaza Sumud Flotilla participant Ersin Celik told local media outlets he witnessed Israeli forces “torture Greta Thunberg,” describing how she was “dragged on the ground” and “forced to kiss the Israeli flag.”

Malaysian activist Hazwani Helmi and American participant Windfield Beaver gave similar accounts at Istanbul Airport, alleging Thunberg was shoved and paraded with an Israeli flag.

“It was a disaster. They treated us like animals,” Helmi said, adding that detainees were denied food, clean water, and medication.

Beaver said Thunberg was “treated terribly” and “used as propaganda,” recalling how she was shoved into a room as far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered.

Italian journalist Lorenzo Agostino, who had been on the flotilla, also cited the treatment of Thunberg.

“Greta Thunberg, a brave woman, is only 22 years old. She was humiliated and wrapped in an Israeli flag and exhibited like a trophy,” he told Anadolu.

Others described severe mistreatment. Turkish TV presenter Ikbal Gurpinar said, “They treated us like dogs. They left us hungry for three days. They didn’t give us water; we had to drink from the toilet … It was a terribly hot day, and we were all roasting.” She said the ordeal gave her “a better understanding of Gaza”.

Turkish activist Aycin Kantoglu recounted bloodstained prison walls and messages scrawled by previous detainees. “We saw mothers writing their children’s names on the walls. We actually experienced a little bit of what Palestinians go through,” she said.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said 26 Italians had been deported, while 15 remained in Israeli custody awaiting expulsion.

Italian MP Arturo Scotto, who was on the flotilla, told reporters, “Those who were acting legally were the people aboard those boats; those who acted illegally were those who prevented them from reaching Gaza.”

Adalah, an Israeli rights group providing legal aid, said that detainees reported being forced to kneel with zip-tied hands for hours, denied medication, and blocked from speaking with lawyers. Israel’s foreign ministry dismissed the claims as “complete lies,” insisting all detainees were treated according to law.

“All of Adalah’s claims are complete lies. Of course, all detainees … were given access to water, food, and restrooms; they were not denied access to legal counsel, and all their legal rights were fully upheld,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the news agency Reuters.

Israel has faced mounting condemnation for the raid on the flotilla, which saw its navy intercept approximately 40 boats carrying aid to Gaza and detain more than 450 people on board.

Critics say the assault underscores the illegality of Israel’s blockade, which has cut off the enclave’s 2.3 million residents during Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

The flotilla, launched in late August, was the latest international effort to break Israel’s siege and deliver aid to Palestinians.

Gaza’s civil defence agency has reported that Israel conducted dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza City – despite United States President Donald Trump’s demand to halt bombardments following Hamas’s partial acceptance of a ceasefire deal.

“It was a very violent night, during which the (Israeli army) carried out dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza City and other areas in the Strip, despite President Trump’s call to halt the bombing,” civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told AFP.

Basal, who works for a rescue force, said 20 homes were destroyed in the overnight attacks.

Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, reported receiving casualties from a strike on a home in the city’s Tuffah neighbourhood, including four deaths and multiple people injured.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, officials confirmed two children were killed and eight people were wounded when a drone struck a tent in a displacement camp.

The proposal for Gaza, unveiled by Trump this week with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s support, outlines a ceasefire, the release of captives within 72 hours, disarmament of Hamas, and a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

On Friday, Hamas expressed willingness to release captives held in Gaza under the Trump plan but requested negotiations on some specifics and participation in decisions regarding the Palestinian territory’s future.

Israeli forces intercepted and boarded the Marinette, the last boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla that was still sailing towards Gaza. Crew members held up signs saying they saw warships approaching before soldiers boarded and detained them at gunpoint.

The Israeli military has intercepted several ships from the flotilla of vessels carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, detaining many of the activists on board.

At least three ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla, made up of 44 vessels and some 500 activists, were intercepted approximately 70 nautical miles (130km) from the coast of Gaza, according to organisers.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a post on X on Wednesday that “several vessels” of the flotilla were “safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port”.

It wrote that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who had been on board the lead ship Alma, “and her friends are safe and healthy”. The ministry also shared a video showing Thunberg.

So far, at least six ships have been intercepted by the Israeli navy, according to the activist group. The names of the vessels are Deir Yassin/Mali, Huga, Spectre, Adara, Alma and Sirius.

Several ships were targeted by acts of “active aggression”, it said. “Florida vessel has been deliberately rammed at sea. Yulara, Meteque and others have been targeted with water cannons,” it said on Telegram.

All passengers on board were unharmed, it added. Before being intercepted, the vessels had succeeded in sailing beyond the point where the Madleen Flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces earlier this year.

Before the interceptions began, the activists warned the Israeli military had cut off their connection by disabling their devices, which affected their cameras, their livestreams and communications systems that allowed the ships to relay messages to the world.

The Global Sumud Flotilla’s official channels denounced Israel’s actions in a statement, saying the mission’s vessels were being “illegally intercepted”.

“People of conscience have been abducted,” it said on X. “The flotilla broke no laws. What is illegal is Israel’s genocide, Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, and Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon.”

The statement urged supporters to pressure governments to act, writing: “Demand your government cut ties with Israel.”

United States citizen and activist Leila Hegazy, who is on one of the vessels, posted a prerecorded message on social media stating that her sharing the video means she has been “kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces and brought to Israel against [her] will”.

“I ask you all to pressure the United States government to end its complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and also to ensure the safe return of every humanitarian on this mission,” she said.

Hassan Jabareen, director of the legal centre Adalah, which has represented flotilla activists in the past, told Al Jazeera that “this time, we do not know what Israel will do”.

The activists could be deported within 72 hours, according to the law, or brought to court within 96 hours. He added that some activists could be arrested but noted that Israel usually opts for immediate release.

“If they arrest and detain them, it can lead to a losing situation, because media coverage will continue as long as they are in custody,” Jabareen said.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the activists would be deported once the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur concludes on Thursday.

Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s interception of the boats, denouncing it as an “act of terrorism” and a severe breach of international law. In a statement, the ministry said it was taking initiatives to ensure the immediate release of Turkish citizens and other passengers detained by the Israeli forces.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the Israeli operation was expected to take two to three hours. He told state TV Rai that the boats would be towed to Israel’s port of Ashdod and the activists would be deported in the coming days. He also said Israeli forces have been told “not to use violence”.

As news of the interceptions circulated on social media, protests broke out across several major world cities, including Athens, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, Tunis and Ankara. Italy’s largest union called a general strike for Friday in protest over the treatment of the Sumud Flotilla.

Italian race organiser says there is high possibility of race disruption due to participation of Israeli team.

The Israel-Premier Tech cycling team has been excluded from Italy’s upcoming Giro dell’Emilia competition due to concerns over public safety, race organisers said.

The decision announced on Saturday comes after the recent Vuelta a Espana cycling race suffered several disruptions by pro-Palestinian protesters who took to the streets of the Spanish capital, Madrid, to block the participation of Israel-Premier Tech, forcing the cancellation of the race’s final stage.

Calls for Israel to be excluded from global sporting events, festivals and music competitions have been growing since the country’s invasion of Gaza, which has killed almost 66,000 Palestinians, in an operation the United Nations has described as a “genocide”.

“It is with regret that, following recent events and given the characteristics of the final circuit, for the safety of all athletes, technical staff, and spectators, I have had to forgo the participation of the Team this year,” said Adriano Amici, organiser of the one-day Giro dell’Emilia, which will take place on October 4, finishing in Bologna.

“We had to make this decision for reasons of public security,” Amici told the Reuters news agency.

“There’s too much danger for both the Israel Tech riders and others. The race’s final circuit is run five times so the possibility of the race being disrupted is very high,” he said.

Police in the Italian city of Milan clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday, during a nationwide strike in Italy called by trade unions to protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The Giro dell’Emilia race concludes with a climb to the Madonna di San Luca sanctuary, not far from the historic centre of Bologna, which has a large student population and a long history of left-wing politics.

Bologna’s local government, which is controlled by the centre-left Democratic Party, called for Israel-Premier Tech’s exclusion from the race, noting the Israeli government’s guilt in carrying out “serious crimes against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip”.

Roberta Li Calzi, the city’s sport councillor, welcomed the decision to exclude the Israeli team, which is owned by Israeli-Canadian property developer Sylvan Adams.

Adams, the president of the Israel region of the World Jewish Congress, is referred to by that organisation as “committed to promoting Israel’s global image”.

“Given what is happening in Gaza it would have been hypocritical to consider the presence of a team linked to this [Israeli] government as insignificant,” Calzi said in a statement.

Pressure is mounting on Israel on all fronts over its brutal war and continued ignoring of international calls to end the slaughter of Palestinians.

European football’s governing body, UEFA, is expected to soon vote on whether to suspend Israel’s football team, whose men’s side is in the middle of attempting to qualify for next year’s World Cup, from all competitions under its jurisdiction. The 20-member UEFA ruling committee is expected to secure a majority to exclude Israel from games if that vote is called.

Members of the Eurovision Song Contest are also due to vote on excluding Israel from the 2026 competition due to its military onslaught in Gaza.

Sept. 26 (UPI) — Microsoft has ended a portion of the Israel Ministry of Defense’s access to technology it used to spy on Palestinian civilians’ phone calls in Gaza and the West Bank, calling it a violation of Microsoft’s terms of service.

Late last week, Microsoft told Israeli officials that spy agency Unit 8200 were in violation of Microsoft’s terms of service by storing surveillance data in Azure, a cloud service, The Guardian reported.

Microsoft released a statement that it wrote to employees Thursday about its internal investigation after an article The Guardian published in August that revealed what the Ministry of Defense was using Azure for.

“While our review is ongoing, we have found evidence that supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting. This evidence includes information relating to IMOD consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services,” Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, said in the statement.

The Guardian conducted a joint investigation with +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. The Guardian wrote that Microsoft and Unit 8200 had worked together on a plan to move large volumes of sensitive intelligence material into Azure.

According to The Guardian’s reporting, Unit 8200 built such a large database, it could collect, play back and analyze the cell phone calls of the entire population. So much so that a mantra emerged: “A million calls an hour.”

The information was stored in a Microsoft data center in the Netherlands, but soon after The Guardian’s reporting, the data appears to have been moved out of the country. The Guardian reports that sources said the Israel Defense Forces planned to move the data to an Amazon Web Services cloud.

“We therefore have informed IMOD of Microsoft’s decision to cease and disable specified IMOD subscriptions and their services, including their use of specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies,” Smith said. “We have reviewed this decision with IMOD and the steps we are taking to ensure compliance with our terms of service, focused on ensuring our services are not used for mass surveillance of civilians.”

Microsoft has faced strong pressure to disengage with Israel, including from its employees. In late August, two Microsoft employees were fired for allegedly breaking into Smith’s office.

An online group called No Azure for Apartheid announced on X that Microsoft fired them for “participating in a sit-in at the office of Brad Smith” at the Microsoft location in Redmond, Wash., to demand the company cut its ties to Israel.

Seven people were arrested that day, two of whom were Microsoft employees.

The UN on Friday warned of devastating consequences for civilians in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces intensified their attacks via airstrikes on the besieged enclave at an alarming frequency, Anadolu reports

Citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference that “Israeli forces have stepped up their operations over the past 24 hours, with devastating consequences for civilians. On average, this meant an airstrike every eight or nine minutes.”

He said the UN teams monitoring population movement “counted about 16,500 displaced people from Northern Gaza to the south” on Thursday alone.

Dujarric noted that aid workers remain positioned along displacement routes to provide support but warned of mounting challenges.

“Aid workers remain stationed along displacement routes, offering psychosocial first aid, referring people to specialized services when needed, and educating new arrivals on the danger of explosive ordinances,” he said.

Despite these efforts, hundreds of thousands of people remain in Gaza City amid widespread insecurity. They rely heavily on humanitarian assistance because more critical services have been forced to close or relocate, he said.

On Israel’s continued access restrictions, he reported that on Thursday, “out of 15 movements that we tried to coordinate with Israeli authorities to support people in different parts of Gaza, only seven were fully facilitated.”

Dujarric stressed that OCHA has urged Israel to “fully facilitate humanitarian operations, including unimpeded movements of aid into and across the Gaza Strip.”

Turning to the situation in the occupied West Bank, he said more than 3,000 Palestinians, half of them children, have been displaced by illegal Israeli settler attacks and Israeli access restrictions since October 2023.

Several countries have demanded Israel be excluded due to its actions in Gaza, threatening to drop out of the competition.

Eurovision Song Contest members will vote on Israel’s participation in the 2026 competition in November.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the event, confirmed the plan on Friday. International demands for Israel to be excluded from the contest due to the country’s actions in Gaza have been growing.

The board of the EBU, an umbrella organisation for public broadcasters that runs the event, has sent a letter to members indicating that the vote will take place at an extraordinary general meeting held online in early November, a spokesperson said.

The vote will be on whether Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster and member of the EBU, will participate, the spokesperson said. An “absolute majority” would be required for an exclusion to pass, he said.

Countries including Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain have demanded that the EBU exclude Israel, citing as a precedent its decision to remove Russia from the show following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

During the past two editions of the competition, the event has been drawn into the controversy over Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, which has now killed more than 65,000 people.

Pro-Palestinian activists protested in Malmo, Sweden, in 2024 and in Basel, Switzerland in May over Israel’s participation in the contest.

In September, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Last week, Spain threatened to boycott the competition – the world’s largest live televised music event that takes place in May – if Israel takes part. Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands have made similar threats.

Germany and Austria have backed Israel’s participation.

Other countries, such as Belgium, Sweden, and Finland, are also considering a boycott and have until December to decide.

Aside from Russia, the EBU previously booted former Yugoslavia from the competition due to UN sanctions over the Balkan wars in the 1990s, and Belarus in 2021 over its crackdown on media freedoms.

Kan, the Israeli broadcaster, wrote on Thursday on social media that it hoped the contest “will continue to uphold its cultural and non-political identity”.

At least 30 Palestinians, including children, have been killed in Israeli military strikes across central and southern Gaza since dawn.

One of Thursday’s strikes on central Gaza resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people, according to the territory’s civil defence spokesperson, who spoke to the AFP news agency.

“Eleven people were killed and many are missing or wounded after an Israeli air strike targeted a house … which was sheltering displaced people north of az-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip,” spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said.

Emergency services confirmed several children were among the dead, and bodies were taken to a nearby hospital.

Israel has escalated its offensive against the devastated Palestinian territory in recent days, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.

Many are fleeing Gaza City, as Israel intensifies its campaign to capture the Strip’s largest urban centre.

Those who are displaced face uncertainty about shelter locations and must pay inflated prices in new areas for temporary accommodation.

“We have arrived in this remote area with no tents, no facilities. We cannot get water supplies. Kids cannot find anything to eat because we are far from everyone else,” said Ahlam Aqel, a displaced woman from Gaza City.

Ahmed Salama, forcibly displaced from northern Gaza, also expressed concern about his future.

“We are going to central Gaza and we do not know where we are going to stay. The al-Mawasi evacuation zone is overcrowded with displaced people. There is no single space for anyone to move there.”

Gaza has been largely reduced to ruins, and last month a United Nations-backed organisation officially declared famine in parts of the territory.

“We lost our children, our homes and our places,” said Najia Abu Amsha, a Palestinian whose nephew was killed while waiting for aid, on Wednesday. “We became beggars and sick.”

Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 65,419 people and wounded 167,160, with thousands more believed to be trapped under rubble.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Emergency services say two people seriously injured in the southern Israeli city after failure to intercept.

Israel’s military says a drone launched from Yemen has struck the southern city of Eilat, and rescuers report that at least 20 people are wounded, including two in serious condition, as Israel conducts its genocidal war on Gaza.

A military statement said the drone “fell in the area of Eilat” on the Red Sea coast on Wednesday after air defences failed to intercept it.

“The public is requested to continue to follow the Home Front Command’s defensive guidelines and further guidelines issued,” it said on Telegram.

The Magen David Adom emergency medical service said two people were seriously injured while others sustained moderate to minor injuries.

Police said bomb disposal experts were examining the nature of the object and warned the public to avoid approaching the crash site or touching any remnants that may contain explosives.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera has been banned from Israel, said it was worth noting that this is not the first time Eilat has been struck or targeted. “In fact, just last week another drone launched by the Houthis made an impact,” she added, referring to the Yemeni group that has been targeting Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

“In that instance, Israel said it was investigating why the interceptors did not go off. So surely there will be an investigation as to how the interceptors failed this time around.”

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have carried out drone and missile attacks against it. They have also targeted vessels linked to Israel in the Red Sea, disrupting maritime trade passing through the water channel.

Most of the dozens of missiles and drones launched have been intercepted or fallen short of Israeli territory.

Israel has carried out numerous attacks across Yemen, including on the capital, Sanaa. Earlier this week, Israel was accused of killing 31 journalists in Yemen.

Late last month, Israel assassinated Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi in an air strike in Sanaa. The group promised “vengeance” for his death and the deaths of almost half of his cabinet.

Israel says Hezbollah member killed in strike, but Lebanon says attack is a ‘crime against civilians’.

An Israeli drone strike has killed five people, including three children, in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said, as Israel continues to target its neighbour despite a US-brokered truce that took effect in November.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday that the strike targeted a motorcycle and a vehicle, and wounded two other people.

Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri said that the three children – named as Celine, Hadi, and Aseel – and their father were United States citizens. The mother of the children was injured in the attack.

Israel said that the strike had killed a member of the Hezbollah group, but admitted that civilians also had been killed.

Israel has frequently hit what it alleges are Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, claiming to be preventing the Iran-backed Lebanese group from rebuilding its military power following its war against Israel, which killed most of its senior leadership, including its longtime chief, Hassan Nasrallah.

‘New massacre’

“Is it Lebanese childhood that poses an existential threat to the Israeli entity?” Berri asked, according to NNA. “Or is it the behaviour of this entity, in killing without deterrence or accountability, that constitutes a real threat to international peace and security?”

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of committing “a new massacre”.

“What happened is a blatant crime against civilians and a message of intimidation targeting our people returning to their villages in the south,” Salam, who previously served as the president of the International Court of Justice, said.

“The international community must condemn Israel in the strongest terms for its repeated violations of international resolutions and international law.”

Labour Minister Mohamad Haidar also claimed Israel was deliberately targeting the Lebanese population that had returned to the south after more than a year of conflict sparked by Israel’s war on Gaza.

“This plan will not succeed, because the will of the people of the south is stronger than the criminal machine,” Haidar said.

The US and Saudi Arabia, along with Hezbollah’s opponents in Lebanon, have been pressuring the Shia Muslim group to give up arms. Lebanon’s army earlier this month presented a plan to the government’s cabinet to disarm Hezbollah, saying the military will begin executing it.

Hezbollah is adamant it will hold onto its weapons and insists it would be a mistake to disarm while Israel continues to strike Lebanon and occupy swaths of territory in the south.

Sept. 20 (UPI) — More than half of Gaza City’s residents have evacuated as Israel Defense Forces continue their offensive in what they call a Hamas stronghold.

Gaza City has about 1 million residents, but IDF officials said more than half of them heeded their warning and began evacuating the city in late August, The Times of Israel reported on Saturday.

Israel has designated a humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip and ordered all Palestinians across Gaza City to immediately evacuate to the humanitarian zone before it launched its new offensive on Tuesday.

Among those traveling to the humanitarian zone are Ahmed Daif Allah, who reportedly lost his eyesight during an IDF airstrike, and his wife, Rafiq.

“The journey is incredibly tough, more than anyone could imagine,” Rafiq told media, as reported by NBC News.

“There is no pity,” she added. “There is no humanity.”

The IDF is continuing its military operation against Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza City with “unprecedented force,” IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Friday.

While hundreds of thousands have evacuated Gaza City, an estimated 84 Gazans were killed throughout the Gaza Strip on Saturday, including 69 in Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera.

The report did not cite a source or say how many of those reported killed are Hamas members or civilians.

Gaza City is located in the northern Gaza Strip, and the IDF warned its residents to evacuate ahead of its military offensive against Hamas in an effort to recover more of the about 50 remaining hostages held by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023.

At least 76 killed in Gaza City alone as 450,000 flee Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave’s main urban centre.

At least 91 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn, where Israeli forces continue to heavily bomb Gaza City, the main urban centre in the besieged enclave.

Medical sources across Gaza hospitals told Al Jazeera on Saturday that at least 76 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City alone, where the Israeli army has been trying to forcibly expel the entire population in recent weeks.

In the area’s Tuffah neighbourhood, at least six people were killed in an Israeli drone attack. In western Gaza City’s Shati camp, at least five people, including two girls, were killed in an Israeli assault, an ambulance source told our Al Jazeera colleagues on the ground.

The Israeli military estimates it has demolished up to 20 tower blocks over the past two weeks in the area.

According to the Gaza Civil Defence, some 450,000 – or about half the urban centre’s population – have fled Gaza City since Israel in August announced its decision to capture and occupy it.

 Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from central Gaza, said Israeli forces were attacking people as they fled following Israel’s forced expulsion orders.

“The army is using quadcopters to kill people trying to escape their neighbourhoods and using these robots with residents saying every time they explode it feels like an earthquake,” she reported.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s ruling entity Hamas released on Saturday what it called a “farewell picture” of 48 Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Hamas has persistently warned that intensifying Israeli attacks and a ground invasion would endanger the lives of the captives; some have already been killed by Israeli bombs.

The armed Palestinian group also claims that captives are “scattered throughout the neighbourhoods” of besieged Gaza City.

Situation in al-Mawasi ‘heartbreaking’

While the Israeli army has intensified its deadly bombing and destruction of Gaza City, it said it is also continuing military operations in the south.

At least three of the dead were aid seekers killed by Israeli forces at a distribution centre near Rafah in southern Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, touted by the Israeli army as a so-called “safe zone” and where Palestinians in the north were told to flee from, was “overcrowded”, leaving many with few alternatives.

“We’re seeing some tents on the sides of the streets. People have literally pitched their tents in places where there’s no water, electricity or infrastructure,” she said.

“That’s because Palestinians do not have any other option.”

Michail Fotiadis from medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says the situation in al-Mawasi is “heartbreaking”.

“Everybody is looking for a place to pitch a tent, but the materials are not available. The situation is really dire for the population. Access to water is very difficult,” Fotiadis told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi, described by Israel as a “humanitarian zone”.

He said more Palestinians continue to arrive from northern Gaza with nothing after escaping Israel’s military onslaught.

“Usually, in a situation like this, survival prevails. But Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have had to endure so many different displacements, so many situations of fear. They are beyond desperation.”

At least four children were killed in the latest Israeli air strike on a school which was being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili shows us the aftermath of the strike.

Videos show the aftermath of Israeli strikes near two of Gaza’s last functioning hospitals. At least 15 Palestinians were killed outside al-Shifa, while several more died in a separate attack near al-Ahli.

A senior Hamas official has spoken publicly for the first time since Israel attacked the group’s leadership in Qatar, describing to Al Jazeera the moment of the attack and how the officials managed to barely escape.

Hamas official Ghazi Hamad was at the location Israel attacked in Qatar last week, describing it as ‘intense’.

A senior Hamas official has spoken for the first time since last week’s Israeli attack on the group’s leadership in the Qatari capital Doha, describing the moment of the attack and how the officials managed to barely escape.

“We were in a meeting, the negotiating delegation and some advisers. Less than an hour after we began reviewing the American proposal that we received from the Qatari mediators, we heard loud explosions,” Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera Arabic on Wednesday.

“We immediately left the scene, because we knew from the start that the explosions were Israeli shelling. We’ve lived in Gaza and experienced Israeli shelling before,” Hamad added.

Israel killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security official while trying to assassinate senior Hamas leaders. Those targeted were involved in negotiating a ceasefire and captives proposal put forward by United States President Donald Trump.

“The shelling was so intense, the situation was terrifying, and the rockets continued unabated. There were about 12 rockets in less than a minute, but by God’s decree … we survived this aggression.”

Hamas said its senior leaders survived the bombardment, which Trump said he was “very unhappy” about. On Monday, he reiterated his claim that Israel would refrain from launching further attacks on Qatar.

In response to the Israeli attack – its first on Qatar – leaders of Arab and Islamic nations convened in Doha for an emergency summit, denouncing what they called Israel’s “cowardly” strike.

However, the gathering concluded without pledges of tangible measures.

Hamad told Al Jazeera that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to change the Middle East needed an Arab response.

He also added that Hamas had a “bitter” experience during the ceasefire negotiations, and that the US did not have credibility as an honest broker.

“He [Trump] doesn’t scare us,” said Hamad, commenting on threats from Trump concerning the treatment of Israeli captives held in Gaza. Hamad added that the captives were treated “according to our values” and were only being put in danger as a result of Israel’s actions.

Israeli forces have killed more than 65,000 people since October 2023, including some 19,000 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

On Tuesday, a United Nations inquiry announced that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide, a finding several major human rights groups have also reached, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

In 2023, South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice, arguing that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip amounted to genocide. The proceedings are ongoing.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from Gaza City as Israel’s deadly ground invasion in its genocidal war continues.

An Israeli army spokesperson announced on Tuesday a “temporary” evacuation route for Palestinians via Salah al-Din Street, available for just 48 hours.

Avichay Adraee stated on X that residents could move along Salah al-Din Street southwards from Wadi Gaza.

“Transit through this route will be available for 48 hours starting today … and until Friday,” he said.

Israel has repeatedly struck residential areas, schools and hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip during the 23-month conflict.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Nuseirat in central Gaza, said: “More and more Palestinian families are fleeing Gaza City under the threat of Israeli attacks with no guarantees of safety at all.”

“While we’re here, we met friends, relatives and neighbours, and they told us they spent more than thirteen hours to make this difficult journey to the south of the Strip because of the vast overcrowding of roads. People say they’re totally exhausted,” he said.

“We also met a number of dual nationals still stuck in Gaza who said this is the fifth time they were forced to flee from one area to another under the echoes of explosions and the wide-scale mass expulsion orders issued by the Israeli military,” he added.

“Everyone on the ground is going through a serious crisis. It is a systematic policy by Israel to control Palestinian land and reshape it. What is still unfolding is a humanitarian calamity with no safe exits,” Abu Azzoum explained.