Israel has killed at least 50 more Palestinians and wounded more than 120 in Gaza as its military has ordered new evacuations in central and southern parts of the enclave.
Gaza’s Civil Defence agency on Wednesday said at least four people were killed and 18 wounded in the latest Israeli strike on Salah al-Din School, which is sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City.
Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency that 10 of the injured were children.
A father told AFP his child was killed in the strike while playing in the schoolyard. “We ran to see and saw my son dead,” he said without giving his name.
“What did this child do to deserve this? He had no missile, no plane, no tank.”
Displaced Palestinians flee the western part of Khan Younis after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
The Israeli military said in a statement the air force “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating inside a command and control centre” located in the school compound.
“Hamas operatives used the compound as a hideout and a base to plan and execute attacks against [Israeli] troops and the State of Israel,” a statement said.
Israel has targeted more than 500 schools in its 10-month offensive on Gaza, alleging Hamas was using them as hideouts. But it has not provided sufficient evidence to back up its claim while Hamas has denied the charge.
In Bani Suheila, a town near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an Israeli air raid killed seven Palestinians, two of them children and five women, at a tent camp for displaced people, medics said.
In Rafah, a Civil Defence crew recovered the bodies of four other Palestinians. They were farmers working near al-Mawasi who were killed by Israeli tanks, which opened fire on them without warning, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported on Wednesday.
Israel’s military has killed at least 40,223 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health. Most of the dead in Gaza are women and children, the United Nations human rights office said.
Source: Al Jazeera
BDST: 1301 HRS, AUG 22, 2024
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