The Civil Defense in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Saturday that Israel had struck another school in Gaza City, killing 90 people and injuring many more.
The strike on the “Al-Tabai’een school in the Al-Sahaba area of Gaza City” left 90 dead, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said on the Telegram network.
Mr Bassal described a “horrific massacre” and spoke of burning bodies.
“Teams are trying to contain the fire, find the bodies of the martyrs and rescue the injured,” he added.
The Israeli army claimed to have “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control center located in the Al-Taba’een school.”
On Thursday, the Gaza Civil Defense reported that Israeli strikes on two Gaza schools killed 18 people. The Israeli military also claimed that the schools housed Hamas command centers.
Israeli army launches new operation in Khan Younis
Israel has agreed to resume talks on August 15 on a truce in the Gaza Strip, where the army launched a new operation in Khan Younis on Friday, after an urgent appeal from mediating countries in the face of the risk of military escalation in the Middle East.
Iran, which supports Hamas and other armed groups in the region, accused Israel on Thursday of seeking to “expand” the war triggered on October 7 by the attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
After ten months of war, the Israeli army continues to fight Hamas in the Palestinian territory, particularly in areas it had announced it controlled.
The army said Friday it was engaged in “ground and underground” fighting in the region of Khan Younis, the large city in the south of the territory reduced to ruins, where airstrikes targeted “more than 30 Hamas terrorist targets.”
On Thursday, she called on the population to evacuate districts in the east of the city. Forced onto the roads once again, crowds of civilians fled on foot, by car, crammed onto trailers with mattresses and luggage.
PHOTO ABDEL KAREEM HANA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians flee the Khan Younis area following evacuation orders from the Israeli army, saying its forces will operate there soon, on August 8.
“We have been displaced 15 times, that’s enough,” shouts one man, Mohammed Abdeen. Another displaced person, Ahmed Al-Najjar, shouts in anger: “Enough humiliation. Stop this farce.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated on Friday that “at least 60,000 Palestinians have moved towards the west of Khan Younis over the last 72 hours”, following evacuation orders in the north of the territory.
The Civil Defense reported a bombing that caused casualties in the east of Khan Younis and another in Nusseirat, in the center of the territory, which left four dead.
“No more time to waste”
The war has left nearly 40,000 dead in the small besieged Palestinian territory, according to Hamas, where almost all of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced, exacerbating tensions between Iran and its allies, notably Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Israel.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Displaced Palestinians who earlier left an area in eastern Khan Younis prepare to spend the night in the courtyard of a United Nations school on August 8.
Fears of a conflagration have redoubled following the assassination, on July 31 in Tehran, of the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, attributed to Israel by Iran, and that, the day before, of the military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Fouad Chokr, killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut.
On Thursday, the three mediating countries, Qatar, the United States and Egypt, called for the resumption of indirect talks on August 15 with a view to a truce, indicating that a framework agreement was “now on the table, and that only the details of its implementation were missing.”
“The time has come to conclude a ceasefire and an agreement for the release of hostages and prisoners,” the text continues.
Israel has agreed to send “on August 15 a delegation of negotiators to the place to be agreed to conclude the details of the implementation of an agreement,” announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, stressed “the importance of quickly reaching an agreement that will guarantee the return of the hostages” held in Gaza.
“Still a lot of work”
“There is still a lot of work to be done,” said a senior US official, stressing that Israel had been “very receptive” to the idea of these talks.
Benjamin Netanyahu “scored points” with the death of Ismail Haniyeh, “he is in a stronger position now, but I think he is also trying to align himself with the United States, which Israel needs so much to face potential attacks from Iran and Hezbollah,” said researcher Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli national security adviser.
“We need a ceasefire now,” pleaded Ursula von der Leyen, who chairs the European Commission, with British Foreign Minister David Lammy calling for an agreement to be reached “urgently”.
Hamas this week appointed Yahya Sinwar as its leader, who is being hunted by Israel and accuses him of being one of the masterminds of the October 7 attack, raising fears of even more difficult negotiations.
PHOTO KHALED ABDULLAH, REUTERS
Protesters, mainly Houthi supporters, hold a Palestinian flag and a banner showing new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a rally in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, on August 9.
At the same time, diplomatic efforts continue to avoid a regional military escalation.
The head of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Gen. Erik Kurilla, began his second visit this week to Israel on Friday, as the United States has increased its military presence in the region.
Lebanon, overflown several times these days by the Israeli air force at low altitude, remains on alert. Concern also reigns in Haifa, the third city of Israel, 30 km from the border with Lebanon, faced with the prospect of a major strike by Hezbollah.
Exchanges of fire along the border between Israel and Hezbollah have been an almost daily occurrence since the start of the war in Gaza.
On Friday, two fighters from the Lebanese movement were killed in an Israeli strike on the south of the country, a source close to Hezbollah and the Israeli army said.
Also in the south, a Hamas “commander” in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Ain el-Heloué, was also killed in an Israeli strike in Sidon, according to the Israeli army and the Palestinian movement.
The attack by Hamas commandos in southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union.
Its offensive in Gaza has so far killed 39,699 people, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed.