- Charges against Sean 'Diddy' Combs to be revealed following arrest
- Israel widens focus of war to include Lebanon front
- 'I am a rapist,' says Frenchman in mass rape trial
- Myanmar villagers battle to save rice crop as flood death toll jumps to 226
- Trump returns to campaign trail after weekend assassination scare
- Indian state reopens schools, restores internet after ethnic clashes
- Young Equatorial Guineans yearn for the American dream
- Man City brace for Inter reunion as Akanji fears 'tough' schedule
- Uganda's 'singing fools' use satire to attack government
- Champions League finalists Dortmund ambitious after 'alpha' rebuild
- Coal phase-out fuels far right in rural eastern Germany
- More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women
- 'Crushed and downtrodden': Azerbaijan's COP29 crackdown
- Meta bans Russian state media outlets for 'interference'
- Von der Leyen set to reveal EU's new top line-up
- Climate finance: what you need to know ahead of COP29
- Azerbaijan says 'God-given' oil and gas will help it go green
- Most Asian markets up ahead of Fed but Tokyo hit by strong yen
- Chinese appliance maker Midea soars in Hong Kong after US$4 bn IPO
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs arrested amid assault lawsuits
- Japanese players in vogue as English clubs widen horizons
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs arrested amid lawsuits
- Buoyant Bangladesh seek more history in India Test series
- Boeing, union to resume talks as strike quiets Seattle plants
- UN General Assembly to debate call for end to Israeli occupation
- 'Virus hunters' track threats to head off next pandemic
- Firefighters battling flames around Brazil's capital
- Myanmar flooding death toll jumps to 226
- Peruvian police seize 1.3 tons of shark fins
- Town at center of US migrant conspiracies hit with 33 bomb threats
- Emmy ratings pick up with historic 'Shogun' wins
- Washington, Madrid, Prague seek information on nationals held in Venezuela
- US Secret Service insists Trump well-protected despite second scare
- Pakistani pleads not guilty in alleged Iran plot to kill US official
- Drug-resistant superbugs projected to kill 39 million by 2050
- London Fashion Week: Burberry gives the trench coat a streetwear edge
- US woman died after abortion ban delayed her medical care: report
- Chiles' attorneys file Swiss appeal to overturn Olympic medal agony
- Intel delays Germany, Poland chip factories for two years
- Brady's Birmingham beat Reynolds' Wrexham in 'Hollywood derby'
- UN chief condemns 'collective punishment' of Palestinians
- Chiefs running back Pacheco suffers leg fracture: team
- Ronaldo misses Al Nassr draw in Asian Champions League opener
- Murdoch media empire succession drama plays out in US tribunal
- Players ignored in loaded football season, says Liverpool's Alisson
- Philippines says disputed reef 'not lost' to China despite pullout
- England's Curry 'curled up and cried' after serious injury
- TikTok battles US ban threat in court
- Glamorgan approach Hollywood's Reynolds and McElhenney over Hundred investment
- League Cup still 'significant' for Man Utd boss Ten Hag
Gaza agency says Israeli strike kills 40 in humanitarian zone
Gaza's civil defence agency said Tuesday that an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in the south of the Palestinian territory killed 40 people and wounded 60 others, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre in the area.
The strike hit Al-Mawasi -- in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis -- which was designated a safe zone by the Israeli military early in the war, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there.
However, Israel's military has occasionally carried out operations in and around the area, including a strike in July that it said killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and which Gaza health authorities said killed more than 90 people.
Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair told AFP early Tuesday that "40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred" to nearby hospitals following the overnight strike.
"Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Yunis," Mughair added.
In a separate statement, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that people sheltering in the camp had not been warned of the strike, adding a shortage of tools and equipment was hindering rescue operations.
"More than 20 to 40 tents were completely damaged," he said, adding the strike left behind "three deep craters".
"There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre."
The Israeli military said in a statement early Tuesday that its aircraft had "struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis".
"The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops," it added.
Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that claims its fighters were present at the scene of the strike were "a blatant lie".
Over the course of the war, Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, an accusation the group denies.
- Shrinking safe zone -
Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, including some hostages killed in captivity, official Israeli figures show.
Militants seized 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 40,988 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The UN human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during nearly a year of war, according to the United Nations.
From 1,200 inhabitants per square kilometre before the war, the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone now houses "between 30,000 and 34,000 people per square kilometre", and its protected area shrank from 50 square kilometres to 41, the UN has calculated.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating in efforts to forge a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, but talks remain stalled.
Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal, but Israel insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border.
J.Horn--BTB