Israel hammered the Gaza Strip from the air, sea and land Monday as the war in the Palestinian territory showed no sign of abating, with Hamas saying it was pulling out of truce talks.
Shells rained down on the neighbourhoods of Tal Al-Hawa, Sheikh Ajlin and Al-Sabra in Gaza City, AFP correspondents reported, while eyewitnesses said the Israeli army had shelled the Al-Mughraqa area and the northern outskirts of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent said they had retrieved the bodies of five people, including three children, after Israeli air strikes in the Al-Maghazi camp, also in the central Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses reported Israeli gunship fire east of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, and shelling and Apache helicopter attacks in western areas of the southernmost city of Rafah.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was continuing its activity throughout the coastal territory, and said it had conducted raids in Rafah and central Gaza that killed “a number of” militants, as well as air strikes throughout the strip over the past day.
It also said its naval forces had been firing at targets in Gaza.
Recently, Israeli missile strikes have killed 17 Palestinians and injured 80 sheltering at a school for displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Israeli forces have killed at least 17 people after it struck a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
More than 80 people were injured in Sunday’s attack on the UN-run Abu Oraiban school. It is the fifthattack on a school-turned-shelter in eight days.
The Abu Oraiban school was housing “thousands of displaced people”, Palestinian Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said, adding that most of the dead were women and children.
The Israeli military said its air force “struck a number of terrorists who were operating in the area of UNRWA’s Abu Araban [Abu Oraiban] school building in Nuseirat”.
Israel has repeatedly bombed UN buildings, schools and refugee camps in designated safe zones. At least 90 people were killed on Saturday after Israel struck al-Mawasi areas considered a safe zone.
More than half, or 190, facilities run by UNRWA, the main relief agency in Gaza, have been bombed by Israeli military – “some more than once”.
The European Union, France and Germany on Wednesday called for an investigation into the school strikes.
A Palestinian man carries a wounded child after an Israeli air strike on the UN school sheltering displaced people in Nusairat refugee camp
The Abu Oraiban school was housing “thousands of displaced people,” Palestinian Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.
Israel has previously targeted schools in the Nuseirat refugee camp at least two times.
The Israeli military said its air force “struck a number of terrorists who were operating in the area of UNRWA’s Abu Araban [Abu Oraiban] school building in Nuseirat”. It has provided no proof of its claims.
Palestinians look at the damage following Israeli bombardment of the Abu Oraiban school.
