IDF fires 'warning shots' at diplomats

Israeli troops fired "warning shots" yesterday towards a group of 25 diplomats visiting Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on an official mission organised by the Palestinian Authority to observe the humanitarian situation there.

- Jason Burke Emma Graham-Harrison

The Israeli military said the visit had been approved, but the delegation "deviated from the approved route" and soldiers fired warning shots to move them from the area.

Footage showed diplomats giving media interviews when rapid shots rang out nearby, forcing them to run for cover. The delegation comprised ambassadors and diplomats representing 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt, Jordan and the UK.

The IDF said it regretted "the inconvenience caused" and that officials would contact diplomats to inform them of the results of its internal investigation into the incident.

Jenin was the focus of a big Israeli assault in January that forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, in one of the largest West Bank displacements in years.

British, French and other European ministers summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their respective capitals to explain the "unacceptable" incident, which will fuel already growing international anger and concern as Israel continues its offensive in Gaza and ramps up the expansion of settlements in the West Bank that are illegal under international law.

A new wave of airstrikes and artillery shelling killed at least 82 people in Gaza yesterday, including several women and a week-old infant, the Gaza health ministry and hospital officials said.

In Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations before an expected major attack into the southern city, 24 people were killed, including 14 from the same family, Palestinian officials reported.

Late yesterday, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said "all of the Gaza Strip will be under the Israeli army's control" by the end of its intensified offensive. Amid growing global pressure on Israel to allow food to reach starving Palestinians, he said: "We must avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action."