Israel has expanded its evacuation order for the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, in the wake of an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Daraj district, east of Gaza City, that Palestinian authorities said killed close to 100 people.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians were forced to flee Khan Younis’s city centre in the middle of the night, explosions from tank shelling reverberating around them, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) removed the al-Jalaa neighbourhood from Gaza’s designated humanitarian zone.
The evacuation order currently in place is one of the largest in Gaza since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began last October.
Colonel Avichai Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, said the expanded evacuation order was issued “against the backdrop of the exploitation of the humanitarian zone for terrorist acts” by Hamas, including “the continuous firing of rockets towards the State of Israel”.
“We inform all residents and displaced persons who are still in the Jalaa neighbourhood that the IDF will act forcefully against the terrorist organisations there,” he wrote on X.
Civilians fleeing the newly designated evacuation area headed west toward al-Mawasi and north toward Deir Al-Balah, which is already overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
“Every time we settle in one place and build tents for women and children, the [Israeli] occupation comes and bombs the area,” a father of five who was forced to flee with 17 members of his extended family told the Associated Press.
“This situation is unbearable.”
Displaced Palestinians make their way out of Hamad in north-western Khan Younis following the IDF order to evacuate. (Reuters: Hatem Khaled)
United Nations officials take issue with Israel’s labelling of certain areas as “safe zones”, saying there are no safe areas in the Gaza Strip.
Areas designated as humanitarian zones, such as al-Mawasi where residents were travelling, have been bombed on several occasions by Israeli forces.
The IDF’s attack on the Al-Tabi’een school on Saturday killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured about 50, according to local health authorities, who called it one of the deadliest attacks of the 10-month war.
The strike reportedly occurred during prayers at a mosque inside the school.
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UN calls out ‘systematic’ targeting of schools
The United Nations’ human rights office condemned the IDF’s actions after Saturday’s attack, saying “for many, schools are the last resort to find some shelter”.
It called the strike the latest in a series of “systematic attacks on schools” carried out by Israel, with at least 21 such strikes having taken place since July 4, leaving hundreds dead.
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The White House also said it was “deeply concerned” about the number of civilian casualties in the strike, adding Washington was in touch with Israel to seek more information.
“We know Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimise civilian harm,” it said in a statement.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris, when asked for her reaction to the strike during a campaign stop in Phoenix, said “yet again, far too many civilians have been killed”.
“We need a hostage deal and a ceasefire,” she told reporters.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong also condemned the deaths of civilians in the strike.
“Innocent Palestinians cannot continue to pay the price of defeating Hamas,” she said in a social media post.
Senator Wong again called for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to comply with international humanitarian law.
Israel insists weapons intended to hit specific targets were used
The IDF defended its targeting of the school near Gaza City, saying the mosque it struck in the school compound was being used as a Hamas command centre.
It said the strike killed 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, rather than the figure of 90-plus Palestinians provided by local authorities, and that the “precise munitions” used “cannot cause the amount of damage that is being reported” by the Hamas-run government.
It said the steps it took to limit the risk to civilians included the use of a “small warhead”, aerial surveillance and intelligence information.
Izzat al-Rishq, a top Hamas official, denied there were militants in the school.
Palestinians look at the damage at the site of the Israeli strike. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa)
Israel blames civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the group endangers people by using schools and residential neighbourhoods as bases for operations.
The UN human rights office acknowledges that co-locating combatants with civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law, but says Israel must also comply with the law’s principles of precaution and proportionality.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel, during which militants killed 1,200 people killed and abducted about 250 others, some of whom are still being held hostage.
Reports strike hit during morning prayers
Video from the site showed body parts scattered among rubble and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets.
Fadel Naeem, director of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, told the Associated Press that it had received 70 bodies along with the body parts of at least 10 others.
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“We received some of the most serious injuries we encountered during the war,” he said, with many of the injured facing amputations or severe burns.
The strike hit without warning before sunrise as people prayed, according to witness Abu Anas.
“There were people praying, there were people washing and there were people upstairs sleeping, including children, women and old people,” he said.
“The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile, and the second.
“We recovered them as body parts.”
Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said three missiles had hit the building.
Many women and children were reportedly killed or injured in the air strike. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa)
Strike derails renewed ceasefire push
The strike on the school came as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to achieve a ceasefire agreement.
A woman falls to the ground in grief following the Israeli air strike. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa )
Egypt, which borders Gaza, said that the strike showed that Israel had no intention of reaching a ceasefire deal, while neighbouring Jordan condemned the attack as a “blatant violation” of international law.
Qatar demanded an international investigation, calling it a “heinous crime” against civilians.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,790 Palestinians and injured more than 92,000 others, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its tally.
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