The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike Saturday on a school killed 30 people, after a days-long military operation further south left around 170 dead, according to the civil defence agency.
Since July 6 at least eight schools -- including the latest one -- have been hit leaving more than 100 people dead, based on a tally of tolls given by the health ministry and a hospital source.
With most of Gaza’s 2.4 million people displaced at least once during the conflict since October 7, many have sought refuge in school buildings including the one hit on Saturday.
The latest strike in the Deir el-Balah city area targeted Khadija school, the health ministry said. More than 100 people were wounded, it added.
Israel’s military said it carried out a strike on the school targeting “terrorists” operating there.
Further south, in the Khan Yunis city area, around 170 people have been killed “and hundreds wounded” during an Israeli operation over several days there, Gaza’s Civil Defence Agency said.
It issued the toll after the military earlier Saturday warned of new operations in the area and issued fresh evacuation orders for residents of Khan Yunis, where troops had earlier recovered the bodies of five Israelis.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,258 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Egyptian state-linked media said Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators are to meet with Israeli negotiators in the Italian capital today in the latest push for a Gaza truce, which critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have accused him of blocking.
The UN said more than 180,000 Palestinians had already fled fierce fighting in Khan Yunis since the military operation began almost a week ago.
The evacuation orders and “intensified hostilities” have “significantly destabilized aid operations,” the UN said, reporting “dire water, hygiene and sanitation conditions” in the Palestinian territory.
In a meeting on Thursday in Washington, Biden called on Netanyahu to “finalize” a deal and “reach a durable end to the war in Gaza,” the White House said.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said she urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal soon with Hamas so that dozens of hostages in Gaza since October 7 can return home.
Harris said she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu in which she affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself but also expressed deep concern about the high death toll in Gaza over nine months of war and the “dire” humanitarian situation there.
