The Israeli military’s air assault on Gaza’s central and southern territories has claimed the lives of a minimum of 50 individuals, while causing injuries to around 200 more. Included among these strikes was an attack on a school that was sheltering thousands.
The health department of Palestine reported the demise of 30 individuals due to the strike on the Khadija school in Deir al-Balah, located in Gaza’s central strip. The nearby Aqsa hospital was inundated with injured individuals. Scenes from Deir al-Balah depicted families transporting their wounded children for medical aid.
The assaults were fiercely criticised by Simon Harris, the Taoiseach, branding them as heinous acts of ruthless savagery. He further stated that such strikes on areas teeming with displaced families were inhumane and despicable. Moreover, Harris stressed that Israel continues deploying excessive force, culminating in a war causing grievous harm and loss to civilians, particularly children. He reiterated his call for an immediate halt in the fighting, release of all detainees, and unrestricted entry for aid into Gaza.
Associated Press reported search efforts for remains amid the debris of the destroyed school. Near the hospital where victims were being treated, the press witnessed people in flight upon sighting an incoming ambulance, which housed a deceased toddler and another covered body.
Apart from Gaza, Israeli artillery targeted the Balata refugee camp near West Bank’s Nablus, causing a fatality, following the injury of an Israeli soldier nearby. In the southern Lebanese town of Kafr Kila, Israeli air strikes killed four people, eliciting a shower of rockets aimed at Israeli territory from Lebanese militants.
Peace negotiations involving Israeli intelligence, the CIA, Egyptian intelligence, and Qatari officials are slated to take place in Rome this Sunday. The aim is to mediate the release of Israeli detainees in Gaza and to facilitate a ceasefire. Militant groups in Lebanon and Yemen stated their intention to cease fire if a truce concerning Gaza materialises.
As stated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), their strike on the Khadija school in Deir al-Balah was due to its use as a central hub by Hamas militants.
Numerous measures were taken to limit the risk to civilians, such as the use of intelligent, precision weaponry, the officials reported. Inhabitants have been flocking to Deir al-Balah to seek refuge, seizing every available space following their displacement from other regions of Gaza.
Furthermore, alongside the attack on Deir al-Balah, there have been additional strikes on Khan Younis following a week of fatal combat in the second city of Gaza. As per Palestinian health authorities, the Khan Younis strikes resulted in at least 23 deaths and caused injuries to 89 people on the fourth consecutive day of forced displacement.
The IDF declared that adjustments to the map, showing regions where civilians could seek shelter, would be made due to the hazards posed by rockets aimed at Israel, considering the presence of Hamas militants in the identified humanitarian area. The IDF also advised Palestinians in the southern region of Khan Younis to “temporarily evacuate” to al-Mawasi; a shrinking coastal humanitarian zone, which has become a refuge for hundreds of thousands who have fled from conflicts in the southern city of Rafah and the recent Israeli attacks on Khan Younis.
The IDF stated that this early warning is issued to spare the civilian populace and distance them from conflict zones. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, approximated that over 80% of the Gaza Strip had been either decreed an evacuation zone or a restricted area. Most of those seeking refuge have reported experiencing displacement five times or more. Israeli bombing has also targeted zones that were previously deemed secure.
The UN’s Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted earlier this week that evacuation orders in Khan Younis were “given amidst ongoing Israeli military offences, leaving citizens uncertain about where they should evacuate from or towards”. OCHA criticised this large-scale evacuation directive as “bewildering”, stating that Israeli forces have stepped up their attacks on these very regions, as well as potential escape paths, while simultaneously urging civilians to vacate.