According to a spokesman for Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, there were at least seven women and children among the dead and that the toll was likely to rise.
At least 29 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school that was serving as a shelter for displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
The Israeli military says it was targeting a “terrorist from the armed wing of Hamas“, who she said was involved in the October 7 attack.
The operation follows the evacuation of Gaza City, where Israel launched a new “anti-terrorist” ground offensive against Hamas militants.
Residents were urged to move south to the city of Deir al-Balah as heavy shelling in the north forced the closure of medical facilities in the city. Residents also reported artillery and tank fire, as well as airstrikes.
There was no immediate word on casualties in Gaza City. When families whose loved ones were injured or trapped call for ambulances, first responders cannot reach most of the affected neighborhoods because of Israeli operations, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Staff at two hospitals (Al-Ahli and the Patients’ Friends Association hospital) rushed to move patients and closed, according to the United Nations. Farsakh said the three medical facilities run by the Red Crescent in Gaza City had closed.
Dozens of patients have been transferred to the Indonesian hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, which itself was the scene of heavy fighting at the start of the war.
The Israeli military says it has told hospitals and other medical facilities in Gaza City that they do not need to be evacuated. But Gaza hospitals have often closed and moved patients at the slightest sign of possible Israeli military action, fearing raids.
Over the past nine months, Israeli troops have occupied at least eight hospitals, causing the deaths of patients and medical personnel, as well as massive destruction of facilities and equipment.
Israel has claimed that Hamas was using the hospitals for military purposes, though it has provided only limited evidence. In Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood that has seen weeks of fighting, the military said troops raided and destroyed schools and a clinic that had been turned into a Hamas base.
Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN humanitarian office.
Ceasefire agreement under threat
Hamas has warned that the latest raids on Gaza City could lead to the failure of negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
CIA Director William Burns met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss the negotiations, Mr. el-Sissi’s office said. Further talks are to take place in Qatar, where Hamas has a political office.
But obstacles remain: Hamas still wants the mediators to guarantee that the negotiations end with a permanent ceasefire.
Israel has rejected any deal that would require it to end the war with the Palestinian movement.
On Monday, Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “put more obstacles in the way of negotiations“, particularly with the operations carried out in the city of Gaza.
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