Gaza Camp Struck Despite Safety Assurances

Palestinians in a temporary camp in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, said there was nowhere safe left to go in Gaza.

Makeshift tents lay flattened and a car was seen still ablaze as people tried to salvage what remained, following Israeli air strikes on the camp.

The al-Mawasi camp residents, most of whom have been displaced from different parts of the enclave, said they were told by Israeli forces it was a safe zone, and moved there accordingly.

Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps in the center of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north, killing at least 21 people, and tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, health officials and residents said.

A barrage of Israeli airstrikes killed 16 in Zawayda town, Bureij and Nuseirat camps and the overcrowded city of Deir-Al-Balah, the last major urban center in Gaza not to be invaded by Israeli forces, health officials said.

Meanwhile the United Nations' highest court said that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there are illegal and should end its strongest findings to date on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The advisory opinion by judges at the International Court of Justice or ICJ, also known as the World Court, was not binding.

But it carries weight under international law and could weaken support for Israel.

The judge Nawaf Salam said "The Court considers that the violations by Israel of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force and of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, have a direct impact on the legality of the continued presence of Israel as an occupying power in the occupied Palestinian territory."

More than nine months into the war, Palestinian fighters led by Hamas are still able to attack Israeli forces on the ground, occasionally firing rocket barrages into Israel.