The assaults occurred as a high-level Israeli delegation visited Egypt in an try to revisit Gaza truce talks.
Not less than 15 folks have been killed in Israeli air raids on a faculty sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, Gaza’s Authorities Media Workplace mentioned.
Many others had been injured within the assault on the Hamama college within the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza Metropolis, the official Palestinian information company Wafa reported on Saturday.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud mentioned that at the least three bombs had been dropped on the varsity as rescuers and volunteers inside the power had been making an attempt to assist folks escape from beneath the rubble.
“These three bombs destroyed the power fully. That is the tactic that the Israeli army has broadly used up to now. The army drops a bomb that partially destroys services, specifically evacuation centres, killing numerous folks, after which inside a couple of minutes, it drops different bombs,” he mentioned.
The Israeli army mentioned the varsity was getting used as a command centre for Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, to cover fighters and manufacture weapons.
Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian services reminiscent of faculties and hospitals.
The group condemned the Israeli assaults on the varsity and mentioned in a press release that “the occupation military makes use of lies as a pretext to focus on defenseless civilians in Gaza.”
In footage verified by Al Jazeera, victims of the Israeli assaults had been seen arriving at al-Ahli Hospital.
Among the many wounded had been kids, a few of whom gave the impression to be unconscious, as medical employees desperately tried to deal with them.
The scenes on the hospital had been chaotic, with among the wounded mendacity on the flooring as grieving Palestinians lined the corridors.
In accordance with the testimony of one of many wounded, the raids had been carried out with out warning.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli assaults within the Gaza Strip killed six folks in a home within the southern space of Rafah and two others in Gaza Metropolis, Gaza well being officers mentioned.
The Israeli military mentioned its forces had struck fighters and destroyed Hamas infrastructure in Rafah and elsewhere within the assaults.
Within the occupied West Financial institution, two Israeli assaults killed 9 fighters, together with a neighborhood Hamas commander on Saturday, Hamas mentioned.
A Hamas assertion added that a type of killed was a commander of its Tulkarem brigades, whereas its ally Islamic Jihad mentioned 4 of the lads who died within the raids had been its fighters.
The newest assaults got here as a high-level Israeli delegation made a quick go to to Cairo on Saturday in an try to resume Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Egyptian airport authority sources mentioned.
The delegation returned to Israel hours later, Israeli media mentioned.
Possibilities of a breakthrough seem low as regional stress has soared following the assassination of Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a high army commander from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Haniyeh’s loss of life was one in a sequence of killings of senior Hamas figures because the Gaza conflict nears its eleventh month, and it fuelled concern that the battle in Gaza was turning right into a wider Center East conflict.
Hamas and Iran have each accused Israel of finishing up the assassination of Haniyeh and have pledged to retaliate. Israel has neither claimed nor denied accountability for the loss of life.