The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said Israeli forces struck a school on Saturday, killing 30 people. The civil defense agency said about 170 people were killed in a days-long military operation further south.
At least eight schools have been attacked since July 6, including the latest, leaving more than 100 people dead, according to death tolls given by the health ministry and hospital sources.
Most of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once since the war began when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, with many taking refuge in school buildings, including the one that came under attack on Saturday.
The latest attack, in Deliverah city, targeted the Khadija school and injured more than 100 people, the health ministry said.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted “terrorists” operating at the school.
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Further south, in the city of Khan Yunis, Gaza’s Civil Defense said some 170 people were killed and “hundreds wounded” in Israeli operations over the past few days.
The death toll came after the army warned of new operations in the area early on Saturday and issued new evacuation orders for residents of Khan Yunis, where the army earlier found the bodies of five Israeli civilians.
Egyptian state media reported that Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators would meet with Israeli negotiators in the Italian capital on Sunday, in the latest effort towards a Gaza ceasefire that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticised for blocking.
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The United Nations said more than 180,000 Palestinians had already fled heavy fighting in Khan Yunis since military operations began nearly a week ago.
The UN reported that evacuation orders and “escalating hostilities” have “severely destabilized aid efforts” and that “water, sanitation and hygiene conditions are poor” in the Palestinian territories.
Israel warned last Monday that its forces would “carry out enforcement operations” in the Khan Yunis area where the rockets were fired, including areas previously declared a humanitarian safe zone.
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Khan Yunis was devastated during heavy fighting earlier this year, but the army withdrew in April, saying it had “completed its mission”.
Now the army has returned in strength. On Wednesday it said its forces had carried out an operation in Khan Yunis and recovered the bodies of five Israelis.
The army said they were killed during an Israeli attack on October 7 and their bodies were taken to Gaza.
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The Israeli army said on Friday that it had eliminated “about 100” militants in Khan Yunis this week.
Army commander Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the bodies of the prisoners were pulled from underground tunnels and walls.
The October 7 attack that began the war left 1,197 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
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The militants also took 251 hostages, 111 of whom remain in Gaza, and the army said 39 were killed.
Israel’s retaliatory military operations in Gaza have killed at least 39,258 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, without giving details on the civilian and combatant death toll.
Saturday’s latest death toll included 83 deaths in the previous 48 hours.
On Saturday, the army ordered residents of other parts of Khan Yunis to “temporarily evacuate to the coordinated humanitarian area in Al Mawashi,” the second such adjustment made to the safe zone in less than a week.
Further south in Rafah, a medic told AFP on Saturday an airstrike on a house killed four people and wounded several others.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that its forces had targeted “military infrastructure facilities” in the Rafah area and eliminated “dozens” of militants.
Al-Kahera News Agency, linked to Egypt’s intelligence agency, reported on Friday that talks “to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza” would take place in Rome on Sunday.
Axios separately reported that CIA Director Bill Burns is due to meet with officials from Israel, Qatar and Egypt in Rome on Sunday.
Recent mediation efforts have focused on a ceasefire and the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden laid out the framework in late May, characterizing it as an Israeli proposal.
During their meeting in Washington on Thursday, Biden urged Netanyahu to “get it together” and bring a “lasting end” to the Gaza war, the White House said.
The same day, the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Hostages, which has regularly protested for an agreement, alleged “deliberate sabotage” of the talks and demanded urgent talks with Israeli negotiators.
Their denunciations came after a source familiar with the negotiations said the arrival of an Israeli negotiating team in Qatar had been postponed from Thursday to this week.
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