Key Points
- An Israeli strike on a school in a refugee camp in Gaza killed at least 17 people, many of which were children.
- The Israeli military claimed the strike targeted Hamas militants inside the school but provided no evidence.
- It’s another in a long series of strikes which have damaged or destroyed nearly 85 per cent of Gaza’s schools.
An Israeli strike on a school in the central Gaza Strip has killed at least 17 people, many of which were children, Palestinian medical officials say.
Forty-two people were also wounded in the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Thursday, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.
Hospital records showed 13 children under the age of 18 were killed in the strike.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence.
Israel has carried out strikes on several schools-turned-shelters in recent months, saying it precisely targets militants hiding out among civilians.
The strike came as the United States secretary of state Antony Blinken said Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas, and that negotiations over a ceasefire and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages would resume “in the coming days”.
The US has hoped to revive the negotiations since Israeli forces killed top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, but neither side has shown signs of moderating its demands from months of negotiations that sputtered to a halt over the summer.
Blinken also announced an additional US$135 million ($203 million) in aid to the Palestinians while again urging Israel to allow more assistance to enter the territory.
Health workers in besieged northern Gaza meanwhile warned of a catastrophic situation there, where Israel has been waging an air and ground offensive for more than two weeks.
Hundreds of people have been killed, and tens of thousands have fled their homes in northern Gaza in recent days.
The military says it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, which was one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.
Dr Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, said in a video message released on Wednesday that some 150 wounded people were being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department.
“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff,” he said.
The war has gutted the health system across Gaza, with only 16 of 39 hospitals even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.
Israel’s Gaza offensive has killed nearly 43,000 people, according to Gaza authorities.
The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 killed 1,200 people and resulted in another 250 being abducted, according to Israeli tallies.
