At least eight dead in Deir el-Balah market, hours after another school was targeted by Israeli forces, killing at least 12 displaced Palestinians.
At least 20 more Palestinians have been killed in another deadly day in Gaza after Israeli forces targeted a busy market and a school sheltering displaced people.
At least eight Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli attack on a crowded market in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, according to an Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent on the scene, who said the death toll could rise.
“This area is close to the market, it is a very busy street. There is a lot of traffic and that is why there are many casualties,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary said.
She said many children were injured in the attack that hit an area less than a kilometer from Al-Aqsa hospital, where most of the wounded were taken.
“There are at least 10 Palestinians, including children, still in intensive care,” Khoudary said, adding that many of them are in critical condition.
“Most of the injured were children. We saw them in the hospital, in the corridors, lying on the floor, covered in blood, waiting for the doctors to arrive.”
The attack on the market came hours after another Israeli attack targeted a school west of Gaza City, killing 12 people and wounding many others.
Emergency crews were searching for survivors, with dozens still believed to be buried under rubble after the school building collapsed.
“Our teams recovered 12 martyrs from Mustafa Hafiz school, which was bombed by the Israeli occupation west of Gaza City,” Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense agency, told AFP on Tuesday.
According to civil defense authorities, around 700 displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the school.
The wounded were taken to al-Alhi Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
The Israeli military claimed to have targeted a command center used by Palestinian fighters at the school – a claim it has repeatedly made in its attacks on Gaza schools, without providing any evidence to support it.
Israel has systematically targeted civilian facilities, including schools, hospitals and places of worship, as part of its ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip, despite a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
The Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed more than 40,173 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 92,857 others since October 7, according to local health authorities.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar in the latest diplomatic mission aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remained.
In a statement, the Palestinian armed group Hamas accused the United States of changing the terms of ceasefire negotiations and of showing “blind bias” toward Israel.
Hamas said Blinken’s claim that it was withdrawing from a deal was “misleading” and that it remained committed to the U.S.- and U.N.-backed ceasefire framework proposed in June.
“Biden’s proposal stipulates that Israel would withdraw entirely in two phases and a complete ceasefire, while the Israeli demands include only a temporary six-week ceasefire,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Tel Aviv Tribune.