At least 30 Palestinians were killed and another 100 injured in an Israeli airstrike on a school building in the central Gaza Strip, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.
The building is said to have housed an improvized field hospital, the Hamas-controlled ministry reported. The information could not be independently verified.
The Israeli military said that it had carried out an airstrike on the Khadija school in Deir al-Balah to destroy a Hamas command centre located there.
Fighters from the Palestinian organization Hamas used the building to coordinate attacks on Israeli troops and hide weapons, it said.
Hamas systematically uses civilian objects for its own purposes and uses civilians as shields, it said. This information could not be independently verified either.
The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre of more than 1,200 people by Hamas militants and other groups in Israel on October 7 last year.
Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a major ground offensive, with Hamas authorities saying that about 39,000 people – mostly civilians – have been killed since the conflict broke out.
Khan Younis operations continue
The Israeli army called on Palestinian civilians in part of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip to leave the area immediately.
“Due to significant terrorist activity and rocket fire toward the State of Israel from the southern areas of Khan Younis, remaining in this area has become dangerous,” the military said.
The area to be evacuated is located in a zone previously designated as a humanitarian zone by Israel. The borders of this zone will be changed accordingly, the army statement said.
Those affected were told to leave in the direction of another nearby humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi.
The Israeli army call was issued via text messages, telephone voice messages and leaflets, it said.
Israel’s armed forces have been fighting militants from Islamist Hamas movement in Khan Younis for weeks as part of its attempt to eliminate the group. The Hamas forces are said to have regrouped in the city.
The Palestinian population is repeatedly caught in the crossfire during these battles. The frequent evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military often drive thousands of people to flee, some multiple times.
