28 Palestinians killed as Israel strikes another shelter school in Gaza

An Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 28 Palestinians, including women and children, today, while three hospitals in the north were told to evacuate putting patients’ lives at risk, medics say.

Reuters reported the strike, in which many more were wounded, happened in the city of Deir Al-Balah, where a million people have taken shelter after fleeing Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the Strip.

The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precise strike on terrorists”, who had a command and control centre embedded in a school.

However, medics said 54 Palestinians were wounded at the school and videos circulating on social media show bodies torn apart, many unidentifiable after the strike.

In the north of the enclave, the Israeli occupation forces are pushing on with an offensive which began 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.

Israel has told residents to leave an area in which the UN estimates more than 400,000 people are trapped. Those following the evacuation order have been shot at by quadcopter, some sustaining life changing injuries.

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Health officials said Israeli occupation forces yesterday gave patients and medics 24 hours to leave the Indonesian, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan Hospitals or risk being stormed as happened earlier in Tel Aviv’s genocidal campaign at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said eight patients, mostly children, were at risk inside the intensive care units should the army force them to evacuate.

“Those children were injured with shrapnel all over their bodies, the upper parts and the brain. They are all in critical conditions and are hooked to oxygen systems,” Abu Safiya said in a video message to the media.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is under continuous shelling according to medical staff remaining, with some doctors and nurses vowing to stay to care for patients https://t.co/XvZSVsJauw pic.twitter.com/frUy6xCB5g

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 9, 2024

“The hospital is also running out of fuel, and the occupation is refusing fuel to reach northern Gaza,” he added, appealing to world countries to press 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.”

“We urge the world to allow us to continue [working] and permit all things needed so that we can provide safe medical care in northern Gaza,” he said.

Israeli bombardment near Kamal Adwan Hospital has already caused some damage to the facility, medics said. Officials said they know of many fatalities lying on the roads outside the hospital because of Israeli fire.

The Israeli military told residents of Jabalia and nearby areas to head to humanitarian-designated zones in southern Gaza, but Palestinian and UN officials say there are no safe places to flee to in the densely populated enclave.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, told the Security Council: “Hundreds of thousands of people are again being pushed to move to the south, where living conditions are intolerable.”

“Yet again, Gazans are teetering on the edge of a man-made famine,” he added.

Residents said Israeli armed forces have encircled Jabalia from all directions, and ordered them to leave through one corridor. They said troops were interrogating those leaving and making arrests, while anyone trying to leave via a different route gets fired at.