Israeli army expresses regret for airstrike on Gaza refugee camp

The Israeli army has expressed regret over the "harm to uninvolved individuals" caused by a recent strike on the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The December 24 attack on the urban refugee camp left dozens of people dead. The Hamas-run Health Ministry put the toll at more than 70, with children among the victims. UN officials said 86 people were killed.

More than 33,000 people live in al-Maghasi, which covers an area of 0.6 square kilometres, according to the UN.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said on Thursday that fighter jets had "struck two targets adjacent to which Hamas operatives were located on December 24."

"Before the strikes were carried out, steps were taken by the IDF to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians in the area," he continued.

"A preliminary investigation revealed that additional buildings located near the targets were also hit during the strikes, which likely caused unintended harm to additional uninvolved civilians."

The incident is now being dealt with by a special committee within the army, which is responsible for investigating "exceptional incidents that occur during combat."

Israel's KAN broadcaster reported, citing an unnamed military official, that the investigation had revealed that the appropriate ammunition was not used in the attack, leading to the extensive damage.

"This could have been prevented if the right ammunition had been chosen for the operation," the broadcaster reported.

According to Gaza health authorities, more than 21,320 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory in the fighting so far.

Aid organizations are repeatedly warning that the humanitarian situation in the narrow coastal strip on the Mediterranean Sea has reached catastrophic levels.

Approximately 40% of the civilian population in Gaza is threatened by famine, according to a UN refugee agency.

"Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and finding water," Thomas White, Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), was quoted as saying on X on Thursday.

"Gaza is grappling with catastrophic hunger. 40% of the population are now at risk of famine," the UNRWA said.

"The reality is, we need more aid. The only remaining hope is a humanitarian ceasefire."

Israel has repeatedly said that it is allowing enough aid supplies into the sealed-off coastal strip, while accusing UN organizations of failing to distribute them. Israel also alleges that Hamas is stealing aid deliveries.

Hamas, which seized control in Gaza by force in 2007, is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Ten more people were killed and a dozen injured in a new Israeli attack on a building near a Khan Younis hospital in southern Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Thursday morning.

The rescue service had already reported of more than 20 dead in an airstrike on a residential site near the al-Amal hospital on Wednesday.

An IDF spokesman said the reports were being investigated.

Israel suspects that Hamas' leadership is hiding in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an area where many civilians were told to flee after the IDF began its campaign to eliminate Hamas from Gaza following the October 7 attacks.

October 7 saw the worst massacre in Israeli history, with militants from Hamas and other extremist groups rampaging through Israeli border communities and killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

Some 240 people were abducted into the Gaza Strip. Some of them were released as part of a temporary truce agreement.

Israel responded by pounding densely populated Gaza with aistrikes ever since. The IDF also launched a ground offensive into the sealed-off Palestinian territory in late October that has been pushing farther south.

Later, two people were injured in a knife attack near an Israeli settlement on the outskirts of East Jerusalem.

Israeli security forces shot at the terrorist and "neutralized" him, the police announced on Thursday evening. It was initially unclear whether they killed the attacker in the process.

One of the people he stabbed suffered serious injuries, the police reported, citing rescue workers. The second victim suffered minor injuries.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said the victims were a 20-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man. Both are conscious.

Israeli media said both were members of the security forces. There was initially no information on the identity of the attacker.

The incident occurred at a checkpoint near the Har Homa settlement in south-east Jerusalem. It lies outside the green line that runs between the Israeli heartland and the territories conquered by Israel in the Six-Day War.

There were also further exchanges of fire along the border between Israel and Lebanon.

The IDF reported numerous rocket launches from the neighbouring country towards Israeli locations.

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported 50 missiles fired from Lebanon towards Israel.

Several rocket alarms were triggered in northern Israel and a drone from Lebanon entered Israeli territory and was shot down, according to the IDF.

The Israeli military responded with counter-attacks on the sites of the rocket launches and on "Hezbollah terror infrastructure" there, including a Hezbollah military compound and terrorist squads, the IDF said.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war there have been repeated confrontations between the IDF and Hezbollah in the Israeli-Lebanese border region, with deaths and injuries on both sides. It is the most serious escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006.