Some 30 others are wounded as Palestinians are pressured to evacuate Khan Younis as soon as once more.
Israeli strikes on two schools in Gaza have killed at the very least 15 Palestinians and injured one other 30, as renewed evacuation orders are given to residents in a number of districts in jap Khan Younis metropolis.
Many Palestinians remained trapped beneath the rubble of the faculties – Abdel Fattah Hamoud and al-Zahraa – sheltering Palestinian households within the Tuffah district of Gaza Metropolis, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reported on Thursday.
Reporting from the destroyed al-Zahraa Faculty, Palestinian journalist Ibrahim al-Khalili instructed Al Jazeera that two missiles immediately hit the varsity. He mentioned civil defence crews have up to now been unable to rescue the survivors trapped beneath as a result of an absence of instruments.
“The scenario is catastrophic,” he mentioned.
The Israeli navy mentioned the faculties in Gaza Metropolis housed Hamas command centres.
“The varsity compounds had been utilized by Hamas terrorists and commanders … from which they deliberate and carried out assaults,” the navy mentioned in an announcement.
Reporting from al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, Khoudary mentioned up to now two weeks, Israeli forces have focused at the very least eight faculties throughout the Gaza Strip.
“Palestinians had been sheltering in there and had been looking for refuge … [Israeli forces] have been concentrating on these faculties with none prior discover, with none warning, and that’s why dozens of Palestinians had been killed in these air strikes,” she mentioned.
A minimum of 39,699 Palestinians have been killed and 91,722 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has displaced practically the complete 2.3 million inhabitants of the besieged enclave amid widespread starvation and spreading illnesses.
An estimated 1,139 folks had been killed in Israel through the Hamas-led assaults on October 7 and greater than 200 taken captive.
‘A state of panic’
In the meantime, the Israeli navy on Thursday additionally renewed evacuation orders to Palestinian residents in a number of districts in jap Khan Younis, saying it will act forcefully towards fighters who had unleashed rockets from these areas.
The military posted the evacuation order on X, and residents mentioned that they had acquired textual content and audio messages.
It marks the second time in a single month that 1000’s of Palestinians have been pressured to flee Khan Younis beneath Israeli bombardment.
Residents mentioned households had begun to depart their houses and head west in the direction of al-Mawasi, a humanitarian-designated space however one that’s overcrowded by displaced families from across the enclave.
“Folks need a spot the place there’s entry to water, the place there’s no rubbish. Right here the place we’re, there’s an enormous pile of rubbish simply beside us, and that’s why not lots of people are establishing their tents over right here,” Khoudary mentioned.
She added that there’s “a state of panic amongst Palestinians” who’ve been ordered to evacuate as they “would not have anywhere to go to, in all places is packed”.
“These folks went again to their homes a few days in the past when there was one other warning for them to evacuate during the past couple of weeks. The identical precise space is being referred to as for evacuation,” Khoudary mentioned.
“Those self same precise households – youngsters, mother and father with all their belongings – had been scattered on the streets for weeks as a result of they didn’t have anywhere to evacuate to when the Israeli forces warned them.”