The strike comes as Israel’s military ordered the evacuation of a part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis.
ADVERTISEMENTIsraeli airstrikes hit a school being used by displaced people in central Gaza on Saturday, killing dozens, as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet international mediators to discuss a proposed ceasefire.
At least 30 people sheltering at girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah were taken to Al Aqsa Hospital and pronounced dead. Israel’s military said the strike targeted a Hamas command and control center used to store weapons and plan attacks.
Militants “used the compound as a hiding place to direct and plan numerous attacks against IDF troops” and “developed and stored large quantities of weapons inside,” the IDF said.
Civil defence workers in Gaza said that thousands were sheltering in the school, which also contained a medical site.
A dozen killed in other strikes
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 12 people had been killed in other strikes on Saturday.
The strikes hit a day before officials from the US, Egypt, Qatar, and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy to discuss the ongoing hostage and ceasefire negotiations.
CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea, and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel on Sunday, according to officials from the US and Egypt, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss the plans.
Humanitarian zone evacuated ahead of strikes
Israel’s military ordered the evacuation of a part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis on Saturday.
The military said it planned an operation against Hamas militants in the city, including parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in an area where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge throughout the war.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it was increasingly difficult to know how many people would be affected by the evacuation order because those sheltering under there were constantly being displaced.
“Referring to the orders as evacuation orders don’t do any justice to what this means,” Juliette Touma, the agency’s director of communications, said.
“These are forced displacement orders. What happens is when people have these orders, they have very little time to move.”
The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.
About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.