People and emergency crews look for survivors following Israeli bombardment on the Al-Nassr school that houses displaced Palestinians, West of Gaza city, yesterday.
An Israeli air strike hit two schools in Gaza City yesterday, killing at least 30 people, Palestinian officials said.
An Israeli air strike hit a tent camp inside a hospital in central Gaza earlier in the day. Gaza health officials said a total of at least 44 Palestinians were killed yesterday, the day after a round of talks in Cairo ended without result.
Footage circulated on Palestinian media showed bodies scattered inside the yard of one of two blast-wrecked schools as residents rushed to carry casualties, including children, and loaded them into ambulance vehicles that took them to at least two nearby hospitals.
Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service said dozens were wounded in addition to the fatalities in the schools of Hassan Salama and Al-Nasser, which housed Palestinian displaced families.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli strike inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound started a fire, and wounded at least 18 people as well as killing five, medical authorities said.
The hospital compound is in Deir Al-Balah, an area crowded with thousands of people displaced by fighting in other parts of the enclave.
Elsewhere in Deir Al-Balah, three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house. Separate Israeli strikes killed eight others inside their home in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza City and three inside a car.
Residents in areas southeast of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and to the north of Rafah, where there was heavy fighting last month, reported receiving evacuation orders from the Israeli military.
The Israeli army spokesman posted orders on X, asking residents of those districts to head towards the humanitarian zone, saying forces would soon act forcefully against militants waging attacks from those areas.
Israel is bracing for a serious escalation following the assassination of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a top military commander from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to convene special security discussions, a defence official said, following threats of retaliation from Iran and Hezbollah.
Hamas and Iran have both accused Israel of carrying out the assassination of Haniyeh and have pledged to retaliate. Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the death.
Hezbollah, like Hamas, is backed by Iran and has also vowed revenge after the killing of Shukr.
At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Palestinian health officials say most the fatalities have been civilians.
