Israel kills 40 in further Gaza bloodshed after reaching truce with Iran

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in Gaza and ordered new evacuations on Tuesday, local medics and residents said, in further bloodshed shortly after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in their air war.

The Israel-Iran deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump raised hopes among Palestinians of an end to over 20 months of war in Gaza that has widely demolished the territory and displaced most residents, with malnutrition widespread.

"Enough! The whole universe has let us down. (Iran-backed Lebanese group) Hezbollah reached a deal without Gaza, and now Iran has done the same," said Adel Farouk, 62, from Gaza City.

"We hope Gaza is next," he told Reuters via a chat app, speaking before two explosions rang out in Tehran, with Trump accusing both sides of violating the deal, though voicing particular unhappiness with Israel, rebuking it with an obscenity in an extraordinary outburst of frustration.

In Gaza, deadly violence continued with little respite.

Marwan Abu Naser, of the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said it had received 19 dead and 146 injured from crowds who tried to reach a nearby aid distribution centre of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Abu Naser told Reuters the casualties resulted from gunfire.

Israel's military said that a gathering overnight was identified adjacent to forces operating in Gaza's central Netzarim Corridor, and it was reviewing reports of casualties.

Responding to a Reuters request for comment, the GHF said in an e-mail that there has been no incident near their aid site, which it added was located several kilometres south of the Netzarim Corridor.

U.N. aid trucks entering Gaza also use area roads and Palestinians have in the past few days reported killings of people by Israeli fire as they waited at roadsides to grab bags of flour from the trucks.

Israel has been channelling much of the aid it lets into Gaza through the GHF, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent the Hamas militants it is fighting from diverting aid deliveries. The Palestinian Islamist group denies doing so.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations' Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that the new mechanism was an "abomination" and "a death trap".

Separately, 10 other people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, while 11 were killed by Israeli gunfire in the southern city of Khan Younis, medics said, raising the day's toll to at least 40.

Israel says militants use built-up residential areas for operating cover. Hamas denies this.

GAZA TRUCE NEXT

Palestinians said they wished the Israel-Iran ceasefire announced by Trump had applied to Gaza.

Adding to their frustration, the Israeli military dropped leaflets over several areas in north Gaza ordering residents to leave their homes and head towards the south, in what appeared to herald renewed Israeli military strikes against Hamas.

"Coming back to combat areas represents a risk to your lives," the army statement said.

Sources close to Hamas told Reuters there had been some new efforts to resume ceasefire talks with Israel. They said Hamas was open to discussing any offers that would "end the war and secure Israel's withdrawal from Gaza". But these echoed longstanding Hamas conditions that Israel has always rejected.

Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent air and ground war in Gaza has killed around 56,000 Palestinians, according to its Hamas-run health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and spreading a hunger crisis.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; additional reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; editing by Mark Heinrich)