At least 30 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a school in the town of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials said, and the Israeli army said it had hit a Hamas command center there, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The Health Ministry of the Hamas-led government in Gaza added that in the strike on the school in Deir al-Balah – one of the most densely populated areas, where displaced families are housed, more than 100 people were injured.
An Israeli army statement said the attack targeted a "Hamas" command and control center" in the "Khadija" school complex in central Gaza. The statement said that attacks on soldiers were launched from the school compound and that weapons were stored there. The text added that civilians had been warned of the planned Israeli strike.
A queue of ambulances formed outside the "Al-Aqsa" hospital in Deir al-Bala, rushing to take wounded Palestinians to the hospital. Some of the wounded arrived there on foot, their clothes stained with blood, a Reuters reporter said. In previous similar strikes that have hit civilian infrastructure, the Israeli military has accused the Islamist group Hamas of putting civilians at risk and deliberately operating in densely populated neighborhoods, schools and hospitals to use them as cover.
"Hamas" denies these allegations. Meanwhile, Palestinian official media reported today that at least 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the southern city of Khan Yunis and that their bodies had been brought to the "Nasr" medical complex.
The Israeli army ordered Palestinians to temporarily evacuate the southern neighborhoods of Khan Yunis so that it could "act with force." Earlier, five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Al-Bureij refugee camp, and four others were killed in another strike on a house in the city. Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics said. United Nations officials and aid groups have accused Israel of using disproportionate force during the war and failing to provide safe places for civilians - something Israel denies, Reuters recalls.