Tel Aviv.-A deadly bombing hit a school used as a shelter in southern Gaza and in the north of the Palestinian territory thousands of people fled the intensification of the offensive of Israeli troops once morest the terrorist movement Hamas.
A source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis reported that a bombing of Al Awada school in Abasan caused 29 deaths, revising an earlier toll upwards.
The Israeli military said it was verifying the reports following its troops acknowledged bombing three other schools on Saturday in attacks that left at least 20 people dead, according to officials in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Israel has claimed that the strikes were aimed at militants it claims are in schools.
In the north of the territory, Israeli soldiers have stepped up their offensive, before the two sides resume indirect negotiations in Qatar on Wednesday to try to reach a ceasefire and the release of hostages, following more than nine months of war.
A source at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis reported that a bombing once morest the Al Awada school in Abasan caused 29 deaths, revising an earlier toll upwards. Photo EFEA source at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis reported that a bombing once morest the Al Awada school in Abasan caused 29 deaths, revising an earlier toll upwards. Photo EFE
CIA chief William Burns and Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea will meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman in Doha.
Burns met Tuesday in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is mediating the conflict alongside Qatar and the United States.
Hamas has softened its demands but accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of blocking negotiations.
“The massacres, murders and displacements” in Gaza City and the “catastrophic consequences” of current events might “bring negotiations back to square one,” warned Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The Israeli army launched a ground operation in the eastern Shujaiya neighbourhood on June 27, before extending its offensive to central areas, where “tens of thousands of people” have been ordered to evacuate, according to the UN.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezedin al-Qassam Brigades, said fighting in Gaza City had been the “most intense in several months.”
The UN Human Rights Office said Tuesday it was “appalled” by the evacuation orders, which are forcing displaced people to flee to areas in the west and south of the city that are also under attack and “where civilians are being killed.”
“The first question that comes up every morning is the same: what are we going to eat today?” said Maysa Saleh, a representative of the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council, on Monday.
UN experts on Tuesday accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that has led to the deaths of children in the territory.
“Thirty-four Palestinians have died of malnutrition since 7 October, most of them children,” added the experts, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the UN.
The international body has not officially declared a famine in Gaza. But for these experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, there is “no doubt” that hunger has spread from the north of Gaza to the centre and south of the territory.
Yusef Jaber, a 24-year-old displaced person living in Jabalia refugee camp, said the population is suffering from “real famine.”
“We have nothing but flour and cans (…). We have no vegetables to cook or meat to eat,” he said.
The war broke out on October 7, when Islamist commandos killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
The Israeli army estimates that 116 people remain captive in Gaza, 42 of whom are believed to have died.
In response, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas and launched an offensive in Gaza that has already killed 38,243 people, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Strip’s health ministry.
The war has also sparked an upsurge in violence in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, where the Palestinian Authority reported that a 13-year-old boy was killed by Israeli troops in Ramallah.
There are also growing fears that the conflict might spread to the rest of the Middle East. On Tuesday, Israeli police reported that two people were killed in the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory occupied and annexed by Israel, by a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon.
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2024-07-12 09:54:47
