A hospital in the Gaza Strip on Thursday reported the death of at least 37 people in a bombing of a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, with the Israeli army claiming responsibility for the strike which targeted “a Hamas base.”
After eight months of war in the Palestinian territory, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil, Israeli bombings hit several areas of the central Gaza Strip as well as Rafah in the south, according to hospital sources and witnesses.
“Army fighter jets […] carried out a precise strike on a Hamas base located inside an Unrwa school in the Nousseirat region” (center), the army wrote on Thursday Israeli in a press release, claiming to have eliminated in this attack “several terrorists” having taken part in the attack of October 7.
Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah reported a death toll of 37 in the strike.
Hamas condemned in a statement a “continuing war of extermination and ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinian people, calling on the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop “these massacres.”
This school, like many UNRWA buildings in Gaza, was transformed into a shelter for the civilian population displaced by the fighting.
Men were inspecting the damage caused by the strike on Thursday morning. The walls of the school were destroyed, according to an AFP journalist who saw a pile of carpets, blankets and mattresses on the ground, with blood stains.
UNRWA, which coordinates almost all aid to Gaza, found itself embroiled in controversy and on the brink of collapse after Israel in January accused a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza workers of involvement in the October 7 attack.
This led many countries, including the United States, the main donor, to suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid to Gaza, although several states have since resumed payments. .
The war was sparked by the attack in southern Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count. based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 people taken as hostages on the day of the attack, 120 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 41 have died according to the Israeli army.
In response, the Israeli army launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip that has so far left 36,654 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
In addition to the strike on the Unrwa school, a doctor at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah reported another bombing on the Nousseirat camp, on a house, leaving at least eight dead. .
Witnesses also indicated that intense rocket fire took place overnight in the al-Boureij and Maghazi camps, in the center of the Gaza Strip.
According to a local source, Israeli planes also carried out several strikes in the east and center of the town of Rafah, bordering Egypt, where the Israeli army launched ground operations in early May.
The Israeli army claimed to have killed three fighters who tried to cross the security barrier between the Gaza Strip and Israel in the Rafah area.
The offensive on Rafah, which forced a million Palestinians to flee the city according to the UN, also led to the closure of the crossing point with Egypt, which is essential for the entry of international aid into the besieged territory.
Egypt, the United States and Qatar, which play the role of mediators, continue their efforts towards a ceasefire, days after the announcement by the American President, Joe Biden, of a road map proposed, according to him, by Israel.
This provides, in a first phase, a six-week ceasefire accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, the release of certain hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack and Palestinian prisoners. held by Israel.
According to a source close to the negotiations, a meeting took place on Wednesday in Doha “between the Qatari prime minister, the head of Egyptian intelligence and Hamas, to discuss an agreement for a truce in Gaza and an exchange hostages and prisoners”.
It was not immediately clear whether discussions would continue on Thursday.
The contradictory demands of the two camps, however, leave little hope of seeing the plan announced by Mr. Biden come to fruition.
Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization, as do the United States and the European Union.
A member of the Hamas political bureau, Souhail al-Hindi, reminded AFP on Thursday of the “two essential conditions for any agreement: a ceasefire and a withdrawal” of Israel from Gaza.
The Israeli army is also mobilized in northern Israel, where clashes take place daily on the Lebanese border with the Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
An army spokesman, Peter Lerner, said Thursday that a soldier was killed Wednesday during a Hezbollah drone attack in the town of Hurfeish, in the north of the country.
The US State Department warned on Wednesday of an “escalation” in Lebanon and the UN also said it was “very concerned” about tensions at the border.
After its recent recognition of the State of Palestine, Spain announced on Thursday that it would join the procedure initiated by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). She demanded compliance with the provisional measures decreed by the Court and in particular that calling for an end to the Israeli operation in Rafah.