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The civil defence agency in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said three air strikes killed more than 40 people within an hour across the war-stricken Palestinian territory.

Israel said it carried out two of the strikes that civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said killed at least 44 people and left dozens more wounded.


The Gaza health ministry said at least 17 people died and 26 were wounded close to a petrol station near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said five died at the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The third strike was on ‘a gathering’ of people near a roundabout in northern Gaza, according to the civil defence agency, which did not give a precise toll breakdown.

Al-Mawasi is where more than 90 people were killed in a huge Israeli bombing raid on Saturday.

Tens of thousands of people had sought refuge in a tent city in Al-Mawasi after Israel declared it a safe zone from military offensives in Gaza.

Mohammed Zaqut, Gaza’s director general of hospitals, told AFP that Israeli forces ‘carry out massacres in the Al-Mawasi area, which it claims is safe, knowing that any bombardment, even with a small missile, will kill dozens of people and cause many injuries because these are densely populated areas.’

At least seven schools have now been the targets of Israeli strikes in 10 days.

Israel attacks killed at least 38,713 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry.

Israeli police said security forces shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank Tuesday after he stabbed an officer, while a relative said the man had been pursued by soldiers.

Ahmad Al-Bitawi, director of the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, said Ahmad Ramzi Sultan, 20, died ‘after being shot in the chest and abdomen during confrontations’ on a road in Al-Bireh.

Bassam Sultan told AFP his nephew had been to dawn prayers when he encountered soldiers.

A Palestinian security source told AFP that following ‘an altercation’, a soldier opened fire on Ahmad, killing him.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials Monday of the ‘unacceptably high’ civilian casualties in Israel’s bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, his spokesman said.

The Israeli military has launched several deadly attacks in recent days including on a refugee camp and multiple UN-run schools where civilians were sheltering.

Blinken received two influential Israeli officials -- Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi -- ‘to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza.’

Casualties ‘still remain unacceptably high. We continue to see far too many civilians killed in this conflict,’ State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

The bilateral discussions also focused on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, humanitarian aid for Gaza and post-war plans, he said.

‘We continue to hear from Israel directly that they want to reach a ceasefire and that they’re committed to the proposal that they put forward,’ Miller said.

‘We are incredibly troubled by the ongoing deaths of Palestinians in Gaza,’ Miller said Monday, when asked about US weapons provided to Israel.