This still image is taken from a video of smoke rising from an Israeli attack on a residential building in Nuserat, central Gaza Strip, on July 24, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas .
Reuters Television | Reuters
Israeli airstrikes on a school housing displaced people kill at least 30 Palestinians Gaza Palestinian health officials said on Saturday that Israel said the attack targeted militants using the compound.
The Hamas-run government media office said those killed in the attack in the central town of Deir al-Balah included 15 children and eight women. The media office and Gaza’s health ministry said more than 100 people were injured.
The Israeli military said it has targeted militants operating there and taken steps to reduce risks to civilians.
Ambulances took the injured to treatment at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Some arrived on foot, their clothes stained with blood.
Reuters footage showed people returning to the site of the explosion to check their belongings as the area burned. Walls were blown out on campus, debris was scattered everywhere, and some cars were damaged.
Um Hasan Ali, a displaced woman who lives at the school, said she had only returned to Gaza from Egypt a few months ago with her daughter, who was sent there for treatment. Now, she said, her daughter was injured in the strike and taken to hospital.
Another woman, Ibtihal Ahmed, told Reuters she was sitting in a neighbor’s tent when she heard violent explosions.
“I started running, my daughter was in one place and I was in another and I saw people running towards the place where they were hit. The people who took refuge in the Khadija school were injured people, they were innocent, this It shouldn’t happen to them.
Israel says Hamas uses Gaza civilians as human shields to operate in densely populated areas, humanitarian zones, schools and hospitals, a claim Hamas denies.
The military said in a statement: “Hamas terrorists used the (school) compound as a hideout to direct and plan multiple attacks against the IDF and the State of Israel. At the same time, the terrorists developed and stored large amounts of arms.
ceasefire talks
CIA Director William Burns expected See you this weekend In Rome, he held talks with the foreign ministers of Israel and Egypt and the Prime Minister of Qatar on the ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages by Hamas.
Israel’s response to the latest proposal was submitted to Washington on Saturday ahead of an expected meeting, Israeli public broadcaster Naoto Kan said, the latest effort to reach a deal after months of blaming each other for the impasse.
more than 39,000 Palestinians People have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Israel has lost 328 soldiers in the fighting in Gaza, and it is estimated that about a third of the Palestinians killed since October launched a military offensive in response to Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel were militants.
According to Israeli statistics, the attack on October 7 left approximately 1,200 people dead and 250 people taken hostage.
On Saturday, the military said it had instructed Palestinians to evacuate the southern community of Khan Younis and move to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, where it would conduct “strong operations” against armed groups.
An Israeli attack in Khan Younis on Saturday killed 14 people, health officials said. The military said it had killed militants in the area and seized many weapons.
Earlier, an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians on a house in Brighi, central Gaza, and four others were killed in an airstrike on a house in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, medics said.
United Nations and humanitarian officials accuse Israel of using disproportionate force in the war and failing to ensure civilians have a safe place to go, which Israel denies.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Nabil Abu Rudeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, blamed the Israeli attack on U.S. support.
Violence in the West Bank had been increasing before the Gaza war began, and has since escalated with frequent Israeli attacks and Palestinian street attacks.
Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli army post on Saturday, wounding a soldier, and an Israeli drone killed one person in the West Bank city of Nablus, the military said.
A local militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and said the man killed in the Israeli drone strike was a member of the group.
