Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip: The Israeli military has ordered further evacuations in southern Gaza after a deadly air strike on a school in northern Gaza, according to local health officials. Israel announced that it had targeted a militant command post, killing at least 19 fighters.
Israel has repeatedly ordered mass evacuations as its forces return to heavily devastated areas where they previously fought Palestinian militants. The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the 10-month war.
Hundreds of thousands of people have crammed into squalid tents with few public services or sought shelter in schools like the one that took place on Saturday. Palestinians say that nowhere in the besieged land feels safe.
The latest evacuation order covers areas in Khan Yunis, including part of an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone from which the military said rockets were fired. Israel accuses Hamas and other militias of hiding among civilians and launching attacks from residential areas.
Khan Yunis, Gaza's second largest city, suffered extensive destruction during an air and ground attack earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people fled again last week after earlier evacuation orders.
Hundreds of families, clutching their belongings, left their homes and shelters on Sunday morning and sought shelter.
“We don't know where to go,” said Amal Abu Yahya, a mother of three who returned to Khan Yunis in June to take shelter in her damaged home. “This is my fourth displacement,” said the 42-year-old widow, whose husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike on their neighbors' house in March.
He said they went to Moasi, a sprawling tent camp along the coast, but found nowhere.
Ramzan Issa, a 50-year-old father of five, fled Khan Yunis with 17 members of his extended family and joined hundreds of people walking toward central Gaza early Sunday morning.
Referring to Israel, he said: Every time we settle in a place and build tents for women and children, the occupiers come and bombard the area. “This situation is intolerable.”
Gaza's health ministry says the Palestinian death toll in the 10-month war is as high as 40,000, without saying how many were fighters. Aid groups have struggled to deal with the region's staggering humanitarian crisis, while international experts have warned of famine.
The war began when Hamas-led militants broke through Israeli defense lines on October 7 and attacked farming communities and army bases near the border, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting about 250.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for months to broker a ceasefire and the return of the roughly 110 remaining hostages, about a third of whom Israeli officials believe have been killed. The conflict has also threatened to spark a regional war, as Israel has exchanged fire with Iran and its militia allies across the region.
Saturday's attack hit a mosque inside a school in Gaza City where thousands of people had taken refuge. The Ministry of Health of Gaza announced that 80 people were killed and about 50 people were injured. The Israeli military denied the figures, saying it had killed 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in a precision strike.
Gaza City and the rest of the northern areas have been surrounded by Israeli forces since late last year and are largely cut off from the world, and it was not possible to independently confirm the details of this attack.
The U.N.'s human rights office says Israel has carried out “systematic attacks on schools,” which have served as shelters since the start of the war, and at least 21 have been targeted since July 4, killing hundreds, including women and children.
European leaders condemned the attack, while the United States said it was concerned by reports of civilian casualties. “However, a lot of civilians have been killed,” Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters traveling with her in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday.
“We need a hostage deal and we need a ceasefire,” he said. “This deal has to be done and it has to be done now.”
