At least 17 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, as Israeli forces carried out attacks across the enclave.
Palestinian medical officials said the Israeli attack in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed mainly women and children, including an 11-month-old baby, and injured 42 others.
Al-Awda hospital, which received the injured, said 13 children under 18 and three women were among the dead.
The Israeli army claimed to have targeted Hamas fighters inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has carried out several strikes on schools housing displaced Palestinian families in recent months, often killing women and children.
Medical sources told Tel Aviv Tribune that at least 34 people were killed in Israeli attacks in the besieged enclave on Thursday, as Israel bombarded central and southern Gaza and its troops continued their ground offensive and headquarters in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Some 400,000 people remain trapped in the largely ravaged area, mainly in Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya.
The Gaza government’s media office said at least 770 Palestinians were killed and 1,000 others injured in the assault, which entered its 20th day on Thursday.
United Nations humanitarian officials have reported “appalling levels of death, injury and destruction” in northern Gaza.
Health workers, meanwhile, have warned of a catastrophic situation as scarce supplies are rapidly dwindling due to the continued siege.
Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said Israeli army tanks surrounded the facility and the hospital was “directly targeted” on Thursday.
He told Tel Aviv Tribune in Arabic that tank shelling of the hospital had caused serious damage to its intensive care unit. Israeli soldiers also opened fire on the windows of the facility, Abu Safia said, as well as the main entrance to the hospital, causing widespread “fear and panic” among children and patients inside. ‘interior.
The day before, he had indicated that more than 150 injured people were inside the hospital, including 14 children in intensive care or in the neonatal unit.
“There are a very large number of injured and we are losing at least one person every hour due to the lack of medical equipment and medical personnel,” Abou Safia said in a video message on Wednesday.
“Our ambulances cannot transport the injured,” he said. “Those who can get to the hospital alone receive care, but those who don’t just die in the street.”
Footage shared with the Associated Press news agency showed medical staff tending to premature babies and several older children in hospital beds, some with severe burns. A child is seen attached to a breathing apparatus, with bandages on her face and flies hovering above her.
“We provide the bare minimum to patients. Everyone is paying the price for what is happening now in northern Gaza,” said Abou Safia.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in the north that have remained largely inaccessible due to Israeli attacks. The war has destroyed the health system across Gaza, with only 16 of 39 hospitals even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.
Gaza’s civil defense announced it had suspended its operations in the north, accusing Israeli forces of threatening to kill its crews.
Israeli forces fired on one of their teams in the town of Beit Lahiya after ordering them to relocate to the Indonesian hospital, where the troops are stationed.
Three members of the civil defense were injured during this strike and a fire truck was destroyed, civil defense said in a statement. Five other members of his staff were arrested by Israeli forces at the hospital.
“As a result, we declare that civil defense operations in the northern Gaza Strip have been completely disrupted, leaving these areas without any firefighting, rescue or emergency medical care services,” it said. the press release.
The siege continues
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the situation for civilians in the north was “miserable”.
“No food, no water, no civil defense teams, no ambulances, no rescue workers,” Khoudary said.
Israeli forces are “forcing people to leave their homes, to leave their shelters, and also separating families from each other,” she said. “They assign numbers to men. They number people and question them.
Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza, which began in October last year, destroyed much of the besieged enclave’s infrastructure and displaced around 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, often several times.
Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into tent camps along the coast after entire neighborhoods in many areas were reduced to rubble.
More than 42,000 people have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities, while thousands more are missing or trapped under the rubble.
The United States and Qatar announced Thursday that negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza would resume.
Months of ceasefire negotiations brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt broke down mid-year.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Qatari officials in Doha on Thursday and said ceasefire talks would resume “in the coming days.”
