Israeli Prime Minister's plan for post-war Gaza draws US criticism

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a plan for post-war Gaza that drew criticism from key ally the United States and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.

The new plan came after air strikes targeted homes in southern Gaza, and as an Israeli delegation arrived in Paris hoping to "unblock" truce discussions.

Netanyahu's plan envisages civil affairs in a post-war Gaza being run by Palestinian officials without links to Hamas.

It also lays out that, even after the war, the Israeli army would have "indefinite freedom" to operate throughout Gaza to prevent any resurgence of terror activity, according to the proposals.

The plan was swiftly rejected by the Palestinian Authority and drew criticism from the United States.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington had been "consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts" about what was needed in post-war Gaza.

In Gaza, around 2.4 million are on the brink of famine as disease spreads.

"The Palestinian people should have a voice and a vote... through a revitalised Palestinian Authority," he said.

"We don't believe in a reduction of the size of Gaza... we don't want to see any forcible displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza and, of course, we don't want to see Gaza dominated or ruled or governed over by Hamas."

Asked about the plan during a visit to Argentina, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would "reserve judgement" until seeing all the details, but said Washington was against any "reoccupation" of Gaza after the war.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan dismissed Netanyahu's plan as unworkable.

"When it comes to the day after in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu is presenting ideas which he knows fully well will never succeed," Hamdan told reporters in Beirut.

Israeli air strikes targeted homes in southern Gaza, witnesses said on Friday, with the health ministry saying more than 100 people were killed over the previous day.

Israeli bombardment destroyed one house and left a gaping hole in the earth east of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where about 1.4 million Gazans have converged in a futile search to escape the fighting.

An injured Palestinian boy being taken for treatment.

"We were sleeping in our house when we heard the sound of a missile," said Abdul Hamid Abu el-Enein. "We rushed to the site and found people martyred and injured" in the strike which "completely erased" the two-storey home.

Israel has threatened to send troops into Rafah, drawing international criticism.

An Israeli air strike Friday destroyed the home of well-known Palestinian comedian Mahmoud Zuaiter in Gaza, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens more, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Most of the victims were women and children, it added.

More than four months of fighting and bombardment have flattened much of Gaza and pushed its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine as disease spreads, according to the United Nations.

"We have reached the point of extreme poverty and hunger," 62-year-old Zarifa Hamad, a displaced woman living in a camp in northern Gaza, told AFP. "Children are dying of hunger."

Agence France-Presse