Israel kills 29 in Gaza school strike

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Israel killed at least 29 people in a strike at a school turned shelter in southern Gaza on Tuesday, a hospital source in Khan Yunis said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Hamas’ Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh said he had warned mediators that the “catastrophic consequences” of the latest attacks could “reset the negotiation process”.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, described the latest fighting in Gaza City as “the most intense in months”.

The United Nations said tens of thousands of civilians have been affected by the surge in fighting since the first of three evacuation orders for Gaza City was declared on June 27.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said that “we have around 350,000 people again on the road” but “basically, there is absolutely no safe space in Gaza”.

– ‘Starvation campaign’ –

After almost two weeks of battles in Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiya district, Israeli forces have extended the fighting further into the city’s east, west and south.

Residents told AFP they saw helicopter strikes, “explosions and numerous gun battles” in the city’s southwest.

Elsewhere in Gaza, witnesses reported artillery shelling near the central Nuseirat refugee camp and west of Rafah, in the territory’s south.

Israel’s military said its air and ground forces were pursuing Palestinian militants in Gaza City, six months after it said it had dismantled Hamas’s “military framework” in the territory’s north.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was “appalled” at the way civilians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, have been ordered to head to areas where “military operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injured”.

Thousands were seen marching down dusty roads past bombed-out buildings, with mothers carrying babies and others packing belongings onto donkey carts.

Independent UN rights experts accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that has resulted in the deaths of Gazan children and constituted “a form of genocidal violence”.

“Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since October 7, the majority being children,” said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva accused the panel’s members of “spreading misinformation” and “supporting Hamas propaganda”.

– ‘Only lifeline’ –

Yussef Jaber, 24, said there was hardly any food left in northern Gaza, lamenting “a life of shame and humiliation”.

“There is nothing for us except some flour and tinned goods that make us sick,” he said. “We have no vegetables to cook or meat.”

Israeli attacks over more than nine months have shuttered many hospitals across Gaza, and on Tuesday the Palestinian Red Crescent said all of its facilities in the Gaza City area were out of service.

Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said on social media platform X that “the closure of these vital medical facilities exacerbates an already dire healthcare system”.

“These clinics and medical points are often the only lifeline for many civilians.”

Israel has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to figures from the local health ministry.

Hamas has signalled that it would drop its insistence on a “complete” ceasefire — which Israel has repeatedly rejected — as a condition for starting truce talks, mediated by Qatar and Egypt with support from the United States.

Netanyahu’s office has set out conditions, including that “any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved”.