DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes hit a school used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, including several children, as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet with international mediators over a proposed ceasefire.
Seven children and seven women were among the dead taken from the Deir al-Balah girls’ school to Al Aqsa hospital. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks on Israeli troops and store “large quantities of weapons.” Hamas called the military’s claims false.
Civil defense officials in Gaza said thousands of people had taken shelter in the school, which also housed a medical center. Associated Press reporters saw a dead child in an ambulance and bodies covered in blankets. Walls were broken and classrooms were in ruins. People were picking through the rubble, which was strewn with pillows and other signs of habitation.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 12 people were killed in other strikes on Saturday.
U.S., Egyptian, Qatari and Israeli officials are scheduled to meet in Italy on Sunday to discuss cease-fire negotiations. CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad Director David Barnea and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, according to U.S. and Egyptian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
On Friday, U.S. officials said Israel and Hamas had agreed on the basic framework of the three-phase deal. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in his speech to the U.S. Congress to continue the war until “total victory.”
After the Israeli strike on the school, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu’s welcome by his supporters in the United States was a “green light” to continue the Israeli offensive.
A new deadly exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has revived concerns about the war in Gaza, inspiring a wider regional conflict.
The Israeli army on Saturday ordered a new evacuation of part of the humanitarian zone in Gaza, ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis in the south of the country. The order follows rocket fire that Israel said came from the area.
The army said it planned to launch an operation against Hamas militants, particularly in parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in an area where Israel has asked thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge. It was the second evacuation order issued in a week.
The 60-square-kilometre area is dotted with tent camps with no sanitation or medical facilities and limited access to humanitarian aid. Israel expanded the area in May to accommodate people fleeing the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population was then located.
“This is my ninth or eighth trip,” said Mohammad Jaber, who came from Rafah. “Every time, they tell us to go to a dangerous area. This time, we don’t know where to go.” He wiped his sweaty face as the children carefully piled their belongings on the sand, ready to be transported by car or donkey cart.
Gaza Health Ministry officials said the evacuation orders had forced at least three health centers to stop providing care.
Israel estimates that about 1.8 million Palestinians have taken refuge in the area. In November, the army said the area could still be hit and was “not a safe area, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA) said it was unclear how many people would be affected by the latest order. “These are forced displacement orders,” said Juliette Touma, the agency’s communications director, adding that Palestinians have “very little time to move.”
Further north, Palestinians mourned the deaths of seven people killed by Israeli airstrikes overnight Saturday into Sunday in Zawaida, central Gaza. Parents and their two children and a mother and her two children were wrapped in white shrouds as friends and neighbors mourned. Al Aqsa Hospital confirmed the toll and AP journalists viewed the bodies.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 17-year-old and a 24-year-old were killed and 22 others injured after an Israeli drone strike in the Balata camp in Nablus.
The Israeli army said that a plane attacked a military position as part of its operations in Nablus. “Terrorists” fired on a military position and one soldier was lightly injured.
The war in Gaza has left more than 39,200 Palestinians dead, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its tally. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 unaccompanied children in the territory were now in need, a figure that has likely risen since then.
The war began on October 7 with an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 people remain in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to have died, according to Israeli authorities.
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Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
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Find more AP reporting at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
