Deadly Israeli strike in Gaza amid anger over UN agency ban

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — A single Israeli air strike on a residential block left nearly 100 dead Tuesday, Gaza's civil defence agency said, as Israel faced criticism after its parliament voted to ban the key UN aid agency working in the Palestinian territory.

Palestinian rescuers and family members were scouring through the rubble of the demolished five-storey block in Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza, near the Jabalia area where an Israeli operation is underway to root out remaining pockets of Hamas fighters.

A charred body with long hair hung out of an upper storey window and corpses wrapped in blankets were lined up in the street below, as stunned relatives sought to identify the dead.

"The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble," Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The Israeli military said it was "looking into the reports" of the strike in Beit Lahia, having earlier reported that its ground and air forces had killed 40 Hamas fighters and lost four of its own soldiers in combat.

 'Women and children'

"The explosion happened at night and I first thought it was shelling, but when I went out after sunrise I saw people pulling bodies, limbs and the wounded from under the rubble," said Rabie Al Shandagly, 30, who had taken refuge in a nearby school in Beit Lahia.

"Most of the victims are women and children, and people are trying to save the injured, but there are no hospitals or proper medical care," he told AFP.

The Israeli military has been conducted a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza since October 6 -- particularly Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun -- in what it describes as an operation to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee the area, many of them not for the first time, after more than 12 months of fierce combat in the densely populated territory unleashed after Hamas militants launched a bloody cross-border assault into Israel on October 7 last year.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,020 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable, triggering warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.

International concerns soared further on Tuesday after the Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban the main United Nations aid agency working with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees.

Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, and UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and in the diaspora for more than seven decades.

'Devastating consequences'

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres sent a letter Tuesday to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu protesting a new law that could effectively cripple the UN agency responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), his spokesman said.

Guterres outlined in his letter "the issues of international law that have been raised by this law," Stephane Dujarric said, adding that it would have a "devastating impact on the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in the occupied territory" if implemented.

Several of Israel's Western allies voiced disquiet at the ban, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Britain was "gravely concerned" and the French foreign ministry saying Paris "very strongly regrets" the law which it said could have a catastrophic effect on civilians.

Germany, which has been a staunch defender of Israel's security, warned it would "effectively make UNRWA's work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible... jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people".

Guterres said the Israeli law could have "devastating consequences" if implemented and "would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work".

The foreign ministry of Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices, condemned the ban as a "continuation of Israel's frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically".

Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was "ready" to continue providing aid to Gaza "in a way that does not threaten Israel's security".

The ban comes as fighting rages in Gaza and Lebanon, where a second full-scale front opened last month.

Earlier Monday, Netanyahu's office said Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari mediators in Doha, where they agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis seized in the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militants.

The statement came two days after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed a two-day truce and limited hostage-prisoner exchange that he said could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

But Netanyahu later said he had not received the Egyptian proposal.

Asked about the possibility of a Gaza ceasefire, US President Joe Biden said: "We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end, it should end, it should end."

Hizbollah names new leader

In Lebanon, Israeli tanks rolled into the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet in the ground operation they launched against Hizbollah last month, state media reported.

Hezbollah meanwhile announced it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as leader after his death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.

"Hizbollah's [governing] Shura Council agreed to elect... Sheikh Naim Qassem as secretary general of Hezbollah," the Iran-backed group said in a statement, more than a month after Nasrallah's killing.

Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah's executive council, was initially tipped to succeed Nasrallah.

But he too was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs shortly after Nasrallah's assassination.

According to an AFP tally based on official figures, at least 1,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, when the fighting escalated as Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hezbollah, which had been carrying out rocket attacks in support of Hamas.