At least 26 people were killed and 93 others wounded when Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
Palestinian health officials said at least another 20 people had been killed since Saturday night in northern Gaza, after the army sent tanks into areas there for the first time in months and urged residents to leave.
The Israeli military said it had conducted "precise strikes on Hamas terrorists" who were operating within command and control centers embedded in Ibn Rushd School and the Shuhada al-Aqsa Mosque, in the area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Hamas rejects accusations it uses civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and mosques for military purposes.
"The mosque has been here for 20 years, and the neighborhood has displaced people," imam Ahmed Fleet said as he retrieved Korans from the debris. "I was shocked when it was struck."
The strikes came as the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas approaches its first anniversary, and as Israel has been expanding its actions in Lebanon.
Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave's 2.3 million people, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
The International Committee of the Red Cross urged all parties to ensure all civilians were protected.
"This is a year marked by heartbreak and unanswered questions. Families have been torn apart, with many loved ones still held against their will. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions have been displaced across the region," it said.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israel had struck 27 houses, schools and displacement shelters across Gaza in the past 48 hours.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where Israeli forces have been operating since May.
TANKS PUSH INTO NORTHERN GAZA
The army on Saturday issued new evacuation orders in parts of Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, just north of Deir al-Balah, forcing hundreds of families to leave their houses. The military statement said its forces aimed to operate against Hamas militants who waged attacks from the territory.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks pushed into the northern Gaza areas of Beit Lahiya and Jabalia overnight, and planes hit several houses, killing at least 20 people, according to medics.
Later on Sunday, the Israeli military said in a statement troops operating in Jabalia had killed dozens of Palestinian militants, and located weapons, and explosive devices.
"The troops continue operational activity against terrorist infrastructure and terrorists in the area," the statement said.
Earlier in the day, it said its forces had encircled the area of Jabalia, the focus of its operations.
In one air strike, 10 people were killed in one house, and five others in another strike on a second home. Residents described it as one of the worst nights in many months.
"The war is back," said Raed, 52, from Jabalia, before he and his family left for Gaza City on Sunday.
"Dozens of explosions from airstrikes and tank shelling shook the ground and buildings, it felt like the early days of the war," he told Reuters via a chat app.
The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller factions said fighters were engaged in gunbattles with Israeli forces in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating in Jabalia to fight Hamas militants, dismantle military infrastructure and prevent Hamas from regrouping.
It directed residents to head towards a humanitarian-designated area in Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian and U.N. officials say no place in the enclave is safe, including the humanitarian zones.
Among those killed in north Gaza on Sunday was a local journalist, Hassan Hamad. His death raised to 175 the number of Palestinian journalists killed since Oct. 7, according to the Gaza government media office.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
7 Comments
The Ripper!
The Arab nation consists of 22 Arab countries. No one is denying there are Palestinian Arabs, but they already have their state--Jordan.
Yasser Arafat, past leaser of the PLO, and Jordan's King Hussein, who were bitter enemies of each other, both agreed Jordan is a Palestinian Arabs state.
So what propaganda has led some people to believe is that there should be a 23rd Arab state, and a 2nd Palestinian Arab state.
NB
It would not be off topic to ascend from the narrow view, and adopt, for a moment, a bird's eye view on the Middle East crisis. Here is the crisis in a nutshell:
1) One of the players in the crisis, the Jewish nation, is a very ancient nation, which exists for about 4,000 years. That nation has contributed a lot to humanity – from the bible to the theory of relativity.
2) The land at the heart of the dispute used to be Jewish until the first centuries AD.
3) The Jews were decimated and exiled by the Roman Empire.
4) The land became predominantly Arab at the 7th century AD, with the Arab/Muslim conquest of the entire Middle East.
5) As a result of harsh persecutions and killings, which culminated during the epoch of Hitler's rule in Germany, many Jews fled back to the land. They wanted to live there together with the Arabs.
6) The UNGA decided in 1947 to establish two states on the land – a Jewish-Arab state, Israel, and an Arab state, Palestine. But the extremist Arabs rejected the UNGA resolution, and decided to wipe out the Jews from the land.
7) Three cycles of clashes ensued, up until this day. Each of the three cycles was preceded with an attempt to settle the conflict, followed by an Arabic refusal. All clashed led to a continued violent escalation.
8) First cycle (1948): The extremist Arabs rejected the 1947 UNGA resolution and launched a war.
9) Second cycle (1990s): The Oslo process. An incomplete agreement was reached. Negotiations continued at Camp David (2000). Yaser Arafat decided to make a U-turn, and launched a campaign of terror.
10) Third cycle (present). Efforts were done by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to settle the situation. The extremist Palestinians decided to thwart these efforts. They launched a war in October 2023, in a manner of extreme barbarism perpetrated against civilians.
11) The Mullah regime in Iran capitalizes on the crisis. This regime vows to exterminate Israel and the Jews.
12) Under such a situation, a nuclear clash between Iran and Israel cannot be avoided.
13) The Jews will not die alone.
The Ripper!
To add, Arabs left or were expelled from other Arab countries and then settled into the region at the beginning of last century.
And then, most importantly, Israel agreed to the establishment of 2 states, while the Arabs rejected the proposal because the Arabs wanted all the land for themselves, even though several other Arab states were already established.
Interestingly, Arabs living legally in Israel have a multitude of rights that they would not be afforded if they lived in other Arab countries.
WoodyLee
"" 1) One of the players in the crisis, the Jewish nation, is a very ancient nation, which exists for about 4,000 years. That nation has contributed a lot to humanity – from the bible to the theory of relativity.
2) The land at the heart of the dispute used to be Jewish until the first centuries AD. ""
One major fact that is missing here is that Arabs and Jews live and worked this land of PALESTINE alongside each other since it's inception and for more than " 4,000 " years. people of all faiths lived there during these days and still DO.
Only when the Zionists decided to invade Palestine during and after WW2 is when the UGLY face of Occupation and Racism started to appear.
We can argue for years about ancient history but that's all it is HISTORY, what we need to deal with is the present and the future, is this the world we wont our children to live in ??
Hate and Injustice will only bring more of the same.
WoodyLee
Typical, The IDF doing what it does best, Killing Women and Children.
RichardPearce
Perhaps the 'Palestinians have their state, Jordan' and the 'The League of Nations/UN gave Palestine to the Jews' people should actually read the entire declarations they claim to be citing, first the bit about 'transJordan' being a separate entity from Palestine, and second the bit about the 'home for the Jewish people' being WITHIN the Palestinian state, and not in any way allowed to diminish or replace the rights of the Palestinian population.
RichardPearce
So, what do you think the odds are that Netanyahu has learned his lesson and won't attack Iran for a THIRD time?
What do you think the odds are that the Indie will accurately describe those as ATTACKS, and not 'response'?
What do you think the odds are that Iran will not respond to that attack?
What do you think the odds are that the Indy will accurately describe that as RESPONSE, and not 'attack'?
What do you think the odds are that the Iranian response will be limited to just demonstrating it can hit Netanyahu's militants bases, when it wants, as often as it wants, as opposed to a demonstration it can destroy a militant base if it chooses to?
What do you think the odds are is that if Netanyahu has been intimidated enough by Biden not to go into 'destroy everything in self defense' mode and targets Iran's conventional power plants, Iran won't respond by destroying Israel's conventional power plants?
Or, if Netanyahu targets an Iranian port, Iran won't respond by destroying one of Israel's?
Note that Iran has a lot more conventional power plants than Netanyahu, is connected in multiple places to a multinational electrical grid, something Israel's repeated attacks on its neighbors means it doesn't, and has a much larger skilled workforce that can grab supplies/replacement parts from a domestic factory to repair or entirely reconstruct whatever Israel targets, unlike Israel.