The Palestinian Red Crescent said an Israeli air strike on a Gaza school killed at least 28 people Thursday, while the Israeli military reported it struck a Hamas command centre.
“Palestine Red Crescent teams responded to 28 fatalities and 54 injuries following the Israeli occupation army’s targeting of Rafida School,” the organisation said, referring to a school in Deir el-Balah
Ambulances continue to bring victims to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah after an Israeli strike on a school shelter killed 27 Palestinians, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Israeli forces have killed four Palestinians in Khan Younis and three in the Jabalia refugee camp as a siege that forced the United Nations to shut down schools and hospitals in northern Gaza enters a sixth day.
Israel’s air force also continued bombarding Lebanon, killing five paramedics, and launched attacks on Syria’s Homs and Hama provinces, damaging a car plant and a military site.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed at least four Palestinians, including the leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, in what the governor of Nablus called “a cowardly assassination”.
In Gaza, at least 42,065 people have been killed and 97,886 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 2023. In Israel, at least 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 people were taken captive.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks and thousands more are buried under rubble and threatened by illness.
“Israeli forces killed 45 people and injured 130 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reachthem,” it added.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
