At least seven killed in latest Israeli attacks on Gaza's Al Mawasi 'safe zone'

Dozens arrested in the West Bank as Israeli forces continue raids in the occupied Palestinian territory

A Palestinian child inspects their tents after an Israeli military strike at an area designated as a 'safe zone' for displaced people, between Khan Yunis and Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. EPA

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At least seven people were killed overnight in Israeli air strikes on tents in the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Wednesday.

Scores of others were injured and tents occupied by displaced Palestinians caught fire, local sources said.

The Israeli army declared Al Mawasi a “safe zone” and ordered civilians in Rafah to move there as it began a military offensive in the city last month.

However, the coastal area west of Rafah has been subjected to repeated Israeli attacks, resulting in dozens of casualties and widespread destruction.

Israeli warplanes and artillery also bombed Rafah's Al Saudi neighbourhood, accompanied by heavy fire from drones.

In northern Gaza, civil defence teams recovered the bodies of six people and a number of injured from under the rubble of a house hit by an air strike in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza city, Wafa said.

At least 37,396 people have been killed and 85,523 injured in Gaza during more than eight months of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the Health Ministry in the territory said on Wednesday.

The toll includes at least 24 deaths and 71 injuries in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

The war was triggered by Hamas raids in southern Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people. The militants also took about 250 people back to Gaza as hostages.

Israeli forces stepped up raids and arrests in the West Bank after the war began, with at least 29 Palestinians detained across the occupied territory on Wednesday, according to local and security sources.

Seventeen people were detained in the town of Ad Dahriyeh in the southern district of Hebron, and a youth in the city of Hebron, sources told Wafa news agency.

Israeli forces also stormed Askar refugee camp, east of Nablus, and detained a former prisoner who had spent 12 years in jails in Israel. Another man was detained in a raid on his home in Beit Iba village, west of Nablus.

Eight Palestinians were detained in the village of Jayyus, east of Qalqilya, and a university student in the town of Tammun in the northern West Bank.