Israeli airstrike kills ‘at least 30 people’ after hitting Gaza school day before proposed ceasefire talks
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Israeli airstrikes have hit a school in Gaza where dozens of displaced people were taking shelter with at least 30 people pronounced dead, the Gaza health ministry have said.
The strike hit a girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah, with those injured taken to Al Asqa Hospital. People have been seen searching the rubble for further victims.
Israel’s military said that it had targeted a Hamas command and control centre which was being used to store weapons and plan attacks.
It comes a day before officials from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy to discuss the ongoing hostage and cease-fire negotiations.
Pictures show classrooms in ruins, while civilians and emergency workers seen gathering the remains of those who were killed. Gaza’s health ministry said that at least 11 people had been killed in other strikes on Saturday across the besieged enclave.
Earlier, 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 evacuation order was in response to rocket fire that Israel said originated from the area.
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.
It’s the second evacuation order issued in a week that has included striking part of the humanitarian zone, a 60-square-kilometer area that is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation, aid and medical facilities.
Israel expanded the zone in May to take in people fleeing Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had crowded.
According to Israeli estimates, about 1.8 million Palestinians are currently sheltering there after being uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign. In November, the military said the area could still be struck and that it was “not a safe zone, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.
Further north, Palestinians mourned the deaths of seven killed by Israeli airstrikes overnight on Zawaida, in central Gaza.
Members of two families — parents and their two children as well as a mother and her two children — were wrapped in traditional Islamic white burial shrouds as community members gathered to perform funeral rights.
As men lined up to pray in front of the bodies, weeping friends and neighbors approached individually to pay their final respects.
On Sunday, officials from four countries are due to meet to discuss the ongoing situation in Gaza as 115 Israeli hostages continue to be held by Hamas.
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.
More follows on this breaking news story
