Israel killed at least 50 more Palestinians and wounded more than 120 in Gaza, as its army ordered new evacuations in central and southern parts of the enclave.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Wednesday that at least four people were killed and 18 wounded in the latest Israeli strike on the Salah al-Din school, which houses displaced Palestinians in Gaza City.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP news agency that 10 of the injured were children.
A father told AFP his child was killed in the strike while playing in the schoolyard. “We went to check and saw my son dead,” he said, without giving his name.
“What did this kid do to deserve this? He didn’t have a missile, a plane, or a tank.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that the air force “carried out a precise strike on Hamas terrorists operating inside a command and control center” located on the school grounds.
“Hamas members used the compound as a hideout and as a base to plan and execute attacks against (Israeli) troops and the State of Israel,” a statement said.
Israel has targeted more than 500 schools during its 10-month offensive on Gaza, accusing Hamas of using them as hiding places. But Israel has not provided sufficient evidence to support its claims, and Hamas has denied the accusations.
In Bani Suheila, a town near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed seven Palestinians, including two children and five women, in a tent camp for displaced people, medics said.
In Rafah, a Civil Defense team found the bodies of four other Palestinians, farmers working near al-Mawasi, killed by Israeli tanks that opened fire on them without warning, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported on Wednesday.
According to the territory’s Health Ministry, the Israeli army has killed at least 40,223 Palestinians in Gaza. Most of the victims are women and children, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.
“Have mercy on us, world”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army on Wednesday issued new evacuation orders for several neighborhoods in Deir el-Balah, the most densely populated area of the enclave, signaling an expansion of the army’s ground operations from the south to central Gaza.
Israeli forces fired into the crowd, killing at least one person and wounding several others, medics and residents of central Gaza City said.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Maram Humaid, reporting from Gaza, said “a wave of terror and panic swept the area” as people rushed to leave following orders.
She said witnesses reported the presence of Israeli tanks near the al-Mazraa school area, southeast of Deir el-Balah.
“Tanks approached one of the schools and started shelling civilians. Quadcopters also fired at people,” Dia Lafi, another Palestinian journalist, reported.
“There is nowhere to go, no means of transportation for those trying to flee.”
As Mohammad Yasser loaded mattresses into a car outside his family’s temporary shelter, he shouted in despair: “Have mercy on us, world! Have mercy! We don’t want aid or food stamps. Just stop this war.”
“The evacuation is like a mass exodus. There is nowhere to go. Deir el-Balah is the last stop. We will end up on the streets,” Yasser told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“If it wasn’t for my children, I would stay here, even if it meant dying. My daughter was born and raised in this war. We have suffered enough.”
The Gaza government’s media office said more than 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced to so-called humanitarian areas.
Only 9% of the Gaza Strip is now considered “safe” by the Israeli military. Israel has repeatedly carried out strikes in these areas, which lack basic infrastructure and water and are overcrowded.
According to the UN, at least 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced at least once since the war began in October.
Philippe Lazzarini, executive director of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, on Wednesday denounced the attack on the Gaza City school, saying that “some were burned alive” in the “horrific attack on one of our UNRWA schools.”
“Is there any humanity left?” Lazzarini wrote on the social network X. “Gaza is no longer a place for children. They are the first victims of this merciless war.
“We cannot let the unbearable become the new normal. Enough is enough. A ceasefire is needed more than ever.”
