Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight
and Wednesday hit a U.N. school sheltering displaced
Palestinian families as well as two homes,
killing at least 34 people, including 19 women and children, hospital officials
said. A U.N. official said six staffers were among the dead.
The
war in Gaza is now into its 11th month, with tens of thousands of people dead,
and international efforts to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas
militant group have repeatedly stalled as
they accuse each other of making additional and unacceptable demands.
In
the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops launched raids in several towns backed
by airstrikes, continuing a crackdown across the territory that the military
says is targeting militants but has wrecked neighborhoods and killed civilians.
One airstrike killed five people the military said were militants threatening
its troops. A second strike on a car killed at least three people, the
Palestinian Health Ministry said.
An attacker crashed a fuel truck into
a West Bank bus stop near the Israeli settlement of GIvat Assaf, killing an
Israeli soldier, the military said. Officials said soldiers and an armed
civilian “neutralized” the attacker.
The strike on the U.N.’s
al-Jaouni Preparatory Boys School in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed at least
14, including two children and a woman, officials from Awda and al-Aqsa Martyrs
hospitals said. At least 18 other people were wounded, they said.
The Israeli military said it
was targeting Hamas militants planning attacks from inside the school. The claim
could not be independently confirmed.
One
of the children killed was the daughter of Momin Selmi, a member of Gaza’s
civil defense agency, which rescues wounded and retrieves bodies after strikes,
the agency said.
Gaza’s
schools are packed with tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their
homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders. The al-Jaouni school, one of
many in Gaza run by the UNRWA has been
hit by multiple strikes during the war.
UNRWA said six staffers
aiding the displaced, including the manager of the shelter, were killed.
“Humanitarian staff, premises & operations have been blatantly & unabatedly
disregarded since the beginning of the war,” the agency’s director, Philippe
Lazzarini, wrote on X.
Israel
frequently bombs schools, saying they are being used by Hamas militants. It
blames Hamas for civilian casualties from its strikes, saying its fighters base
themselves and operate within dense residential neighborhoods.
More
than 90% of Gaza’s school buildings have been severely or partially damaged in
strikes, and more than half the schools housing displaced people have been hit,
according to a survey in July by the Education Cluster, a collection of aid
groups led by UNICEF and Save the Children.
Israel’s
offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,084 Palestinians and wounded another
95,029, the territory’s Health Ministry said. The ministry’s count does not
differentiate between civilians and militants. Israel launched its campaign
vowing to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which
militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others.
Earlier Wednesday, a strike
hit a home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people,
including six brothers and sisters ranging from 21 months to 21 years old,
according to the European Hospital, which received the casualties.
A
strike late Tuesday on a home in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern
Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children, according to the
Health Ministry and the civil defense. The civil defense said the home belonged
to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at the al-Quds Open University, who survived.
The
Israeli military said two soldiers died and seven were injured when their
helicopter crashed in southern Gaza as they evacuated wounded troops. It said
the overnight crash was not the result of enemy fire and is under
investigation. There have been 340 Israeli soldiers killed since the ground
operation began in Gaza in late October, at least 50 of whom died in accidents,
according to the military.
The
West Bank also has seen a surge in violence. Israel has stepped up its military raids there,
saying it is working to dismantle militant groups and prevent increasing
militant attacks on Israelis. Palestinians say such operations are aimed at
cementing Israel’s seemingly open-ended military rule over the territory. At
the same time, Jewish settlers have accelerated attacks on Palestinians.
The
military on Wednesday said it launched assaults around the West Bank town of
Tulkarem and in two northern towns. It said it dismantled an explosives lab, a
weapons manufacturing workshop and an explosives-rigged vehicle. The military
said an airstrike backing troops operating in the town of Tubas killed five
militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed five were killed but did
not specify if they were militants or civilians.
The
Red Crescent said three people were killed in a strike on a car in a village
outside Tulkarem. The military confirmed it carried out a strike there but had
no immediate details.