Gaza a 'mass grave' of Palestinians, says MSF, as Israeli strikes kill 13

Gaza has become a “mass grave” for Palestinians and those trying to help them, medical charity MSF said on Wednesday as medics said the Israeli military killed at least 13 in the north of the enclave and continued to demolish homes in Rafah in the south.

Palestinian medics said an air strike killed 10 people, including the well-known writer and photographer Fatema Hassouna, whose work has captured the struggles faced by her community in Gaza City through the war. A strike on another house further north killed three, they said.

There was no comment from the Israeli military.

In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, residents said the Israeli military demolished more homes in the city, which has come under Israeli control in the past days in what Israeli leaders said was an expansion of security zones in Gaza to put more pressure on Hamas to release remaining hostages.

“Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance. We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the population in Gaza,” Amande Bazerolle, Medecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) emergency co-ordinator in Gaza, said.

“With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care.”

Efforts by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the US to restore the defunct ceasefire in Gaza and free Israeli hostages have faltered with Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas locked in their positions.

Hamas says it wants to move into the second phase of the January ceasefire agreement that would discuss Israel's pullout from Gaza and ending the war, which erupted when Hamas militants stormed Israel on October 7 2023. Israel says war can only end when Hamas is defeated.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Israel's suspension of the entry of fuel, medical and food supplies since early March had begun to obstruct the work of the few remaining working hospitals, with medical supplies drying up.

“Hundreds of patients and wounded people are deprived of essential medications and their suffering is worsening due to the closure of border crossings,” the ministry said.

Israel said the punitive measures were designed to keep up pressure on Hamas, while the Islamist faction condemned it as “collective punishment”.

Since restarting its military offensive in March, after two months of relative calm, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities have said. The campaign has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave.

Meanwhile, 59 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of the militants. Israel believes 24 of them are alive.

The war was triggered by Hamas' October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, at least 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive.