DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) – An Israeli strike on a school sheltering the displaced in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people yesterday, Palestinian medical officials said.
The Israeli military said it targetted militants hiding among civilians, without providing evidence.
Israel has continued to strike at what it said are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran.
The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.
In a separate development, a United Nations (UN) official said Israeli forces fired on three positions of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, wounding two peacekeepers.
The official was not authorised to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought, said the strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah killed 27 people, including a child and seven women. It said several other people were wounded.
An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.
“We appeal to the world. We are dying!” one man screamed.
The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike targetting a militant command and control centre inside the school. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of hiding out in them.
Witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamas-run police who provide security. They said there were no police in the room at the time.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but said women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
The Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon began firing rockets into Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation.
The fighting steadily escalated, and eventually boiled over into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy strikes across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion.
Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.
