Israel-Hamas war live updates: Hundreds ‘killed in air strike on Gaza hospital’ as school sheltering thousands hit

Hassan Khalaf, the medical director of Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, only 1km from al-Ahli Arab, says the hospital “is still burning” after Israel’s attack.

Khalaf told Al Jazeera that thousands of Palestinians have been injured in the ongoing Israeli bombardment and there is no safe place left.

“Where [is there] to go?” he asked.

“They want to do massacres and massacres and massacres in Gaza.”

More than 300 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a hospital in Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, the civil defense chief told Al-Jazeera TV.

A health ministry official in Gaza said at least 500 were killed and injured in the air strike.

A Civil Defense Spokesperson described to Al Jazeera Israel’s targeting of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

He said: “We are unable to deal with the situation now. All of what we are seeing is dead bodies and beheaded babies and women. It is a massacre.”

Over 500 have been killed and injured in the bombardment of the Baptist Hospital, a ministry spokesman confirmed.

The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in a hospital explosion it claims was caused by an Israeli air strike.

Reports the Anglican hospital in central Gaza was rocked by an explosion in the past hour.

Civilians who have fled to the south of Gaza – following Israel’s forced evacuation order – told The Independent the situation was “disastrous”.

“Since 7 October I have been displaced four times,” said Ghassan, who escaped with his family and friends from Gaza city to Deir al Salah in the centre of the country, as both their homes had been destroyed in strikes.

“The place we are at now has 35 people and zero water. My father is sick and handicapped. The children are terrified, and we are facing death every second.”

The WHO and rights groups have warned that Israel’s evacuation orders for civilians in Gaza could amount to the war crime of forcible transfer.

The Prime Minister is believed to fly to the region as part of a wider visit to the region to include Jordan and Egypt.

Six people were killed and more injured in an Israeli strike on a school-turned shelter for families trying to flee Gaza, the United Nations said.

“At least six people were killed this afternoon when an UNRWA school was hit in al-Maghazi refugee camp, in Gaza’s middle area.

“Dozens were injured (including UNRWA staff) and severe structural damage was caused to the school.

“The numbers are likely to be higher.

“This is outrageous, and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians.

No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities.

“The school was hit during Israeli forces airstrikes and bombardment on the Gaza Strip.

“At least 4,000 people have taken refuge in this UNRWA school turned shelter. They had and still have nowhere else to go.

“Since the war began on 7 October, UNRWA provides the coordinates of its facilities to relevant parties on a daily basis.”

Violence erupted on the Lebanese-Israeli border with five fighters from Lebanon’s heavily armed Hezbollah group killed during operations against Israel, security sources in Lebanon said.

In the most serious flare-up at the frontier in 17 years, Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded fire almost daily since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and Israel responded with fierce air strikes on Gaza.

The Israeli army, which said it would shoot anyone coming near the border or meddling with its fence, said it killed four people on Tuesday who had tried to cross the barrier and plant an explosive device. It did not say where this took place.

Hezbollah confirmed that five of its fighters had been killed but it was not immediately clear if any of them were the same ones referred to by Israel.

Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad which both have operatives in Lebanon, said it carried out attacks including a guided-missile strike against an Israeli army vehicle in the Israeli border town of Metula.

Israel has bombed areas of southern Gaza where it told Palestinians to flee ahead of an expected invasion, killing dozens of people.

Violence along Israel’s border with Lebanon has also led to concerns over a widening regional conflict that diplomats have been working to prevent.

In Gaza, people wounded in the air strikes were rushed to hospital after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported.

Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said that an Israeli air strike in the central Gaza Strip killed one of its top commanders.

Ayman Nofal is the most high-profile Hamas militant to be killed so far. Known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed, he was killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes that targeted the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, the militant group said.

Israel has attacked around 5,000 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip since Oct 7 and has cancelled a “large number” of other strikes in an effort to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday.

Briefing Reuters on condition of anonymity, the official did not elaborate on the number of strikes cancelled during a days-long bombardment of Gaza that has killed around 3,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, saying only that every such operation is “approved at the highest level” of the Israeli military.

In the wake of the devastating Oct 7 incursions by Hamas, Israel was determined to eliminate the Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza “even if it takes months or years,” he said.

Fox News Jess Watters says the only difference between Palestinians and Hamas is that one group carries guns and both “love killing Jews”.