Israel strikes Gaza refugee camp

An Israeli strike hit a residential building in a Gaza City refugee camp on Wednesday. Footage showed flames and smoke pouring from a multi-storey block of flats in the densely populated Al-Shati camp in the north of the city. Residents said the strike came after the Israeli military warned them to evacuate the area near the end of Hamid Street. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Al-Shati, which is also known as Beach Camp and is on the Mediterranean coast, was established in 1948 to house Palestinians expelled during the Arab-Israeli war that year. Although it is still referred to as a refugee camp, it now resembles an urban area and is home to around 90,000 people, according to 2023 data from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Hamas and Israel agreed to halt the war last year after accepting Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. That plan included the suspension of “all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment ”. However, Israel has continued to carry out targeted strikes on what it says are Hamas members. Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu , Israel’s prime minister, said special forces had captured Moein Muhammad al-Arabid, the head of Hamas’s internal security service in a ground operation in Gaza City. Mr al-Arabid had “engaged in attempts to restore Hamas’s governance in Gaza and in deception concerning the demilitarisation of the Strip”, Mr Netanyahu said. At least four Palestinians, including two children and a woman, were killed in the raids, doctors told the BBC. Hamas called the strikes a “grave crime” and a violation of the ceasefire. On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed a man and his eight-year-old daughter in western Gaza City, according to Mohamed Abu Selmia, the head of Al Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest medical facility. Six others were wounded. An Israeli military spokesman said ⁠forces had targeted a Hamas terrorist, and the military was still looking into the results of the attack. Later on Sunday, two separate Israeli strikes killed two other people, including a three-year-old boy sheltering at a school housing displaced families in Gaza City, doctors said.