CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 28 people including women and children on Thursday, while three hospitals in the north were told to evacuate, putting patients’ lives at risk, medics said.
The strike, in which many more were wounded, occurred in the city of Deir Al-Balah where a million people have taken shelter after fleeing fighting elsewhere after more than a year of war.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had carried out a “precise strike on terrorists” who had a command and control centre embedded in a school.
“This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organisation’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” a military statement said.
The Palestinian militant group denies such accusations. Medics said 54 other people were injured at the school.
In Gaza’s north, the Israeli military was pursuing an offensive begun six days ago when it sent its troops into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Palestinian health officials say at least 130 people have been killed so far in the operation, which Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.
The military has told residents to evacuate an area in which the UN estimates more than 400,000 people are trapped.
The health officials said the Israeli military on Wednesday gave patients and medics 24 hours to leave the Indonesian, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals or risk being stormed as happened earlier in the war at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Israel, which has not yet commented on evacuation orders for medical facilities, has said Hamas has command facilities concealed within the hospitals, which it denies.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said eight patients, mostly children with critical shrapnel wounds, were at risk inside intensive-care units should the army force their evacuation, and the hospital was also running out of fuel.
Abu Safiya called for international pressure on Israel to allow medical staffers in north Gaza’s three hospitals to continue to operate, saying: “Our message is a message of peace for the sake of those children.”
Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said an OCHA-World Health Organization team could not reach Kamal Adwan Hospital despite having secured a green light from the Israeli military.
“The team was forced to wait at the holding point for hours, and ultimately, the mission had to be aborted. And that’s not an unusual practice,” Rajasingham told a UN meeting. “In September, less than 10% of coordinated missions to the north (of Gaza) were facilitated by the Israeli authorities.
“The essential conditions for effective aid operations are severely lacking or entirely absent,” he added.
Israeli bombardment near Kamal Adwan Hospital has already caused some damage to the facility, medics said. They said they know of many dead bodies lying on the roads outside the hospital because of Israeli fire.