At least 33 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Israeli air attacks on two schools housing displaced people in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, according to local officials.
Gaza’s Government Media Office stated that 29 people – including 18 children – were killed and over 100 injured when Israeli air raids struck the Dar al-Arqam School, which had been turned into a shelter, on Thursday. A Civil Defence spokesperson reported that the school was hit with at least four missiles.
Sources told Al Jazeera that at least four people were also killed in an Israeli attack on the Fahd School in Gaza City, which was also sheltering displaced families.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted a command center in Gaza City used by Hamas fighters to plan and execute attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. It was unclear whether this was the same attack that hit the school.
Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted shelters in the Gaza Strip, where displaced families with nowhere to flee remain trapped in the besieged enclave, which is under heavy bombardment.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, described the footage from the bombing at Dar al-Arqam School as “horrific.” He said, “Some of the footage is too graphic to show – horrific and deeply disturbing. Many were killed on the spot, while others succumbed to their injuries while being transported in ambulances or civilian vehicles to al-Ahli Hospital.” He added, “This tragedy underscores again that Israeli-described ‘safe zones’ are anything but.”
A spokesperson for Gaza’s emergency rescue workers urged the international community to intervene immediately to stop the Israeli army from killing Palestinians. “What is going on here is a wake-up call to the entire world. This war and these massacres against women and children must stop immediately. Children are being killed in cold blood here in Gaza,” he said.
Medical sources reported that at least 100 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Thursday, with 58 killed in Gaza City and others in the southern city of Khan Younis. In Gaza City, 21 bodies, including seven children, were taken to al-Ahli Arab Hospital. In Khan Younis, 14 bodies, including nine from the same family, were taken to Nasser Hospital. Those killed included five children and four women. Another 19 bodies, including five children aged one to seven and a pregnant woman, were taken to the European Gaza Hospital near Khan Younis.
The Government Media Office warned that Civil Defence crews are struggling to rescue people from under the rubble due to a lack of equipment and vehicles, while the healthcare sector is collapsing.
Israel has imposed a month-long total siege on Gaza, sealing vital crossings and banning the entry of all humanitarian aid, including food, fuel, and medical supplies. This has left Palestinians in Gaza facing acute shortages and exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis.
### Searching for Shelter
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of families fled on Thursday in one of the largest displacements of the war as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah. This is part of a newly announced “security zone” Israel intends to seize.
The Israeli army’s assault on Rafah marks a major escalation in the war after Israel broke a ceasefire with Hamas on March 18 and resumed its attacks on Gaza. Israeli forces pushed into Rafah, which had served as a last refuge for many fleeing other areas.
“Rafah is gone. It is being wiped out,” a father of seven told Reuters. He was among the hundreds of thousands who fled Rafah for neighboring Khan Younis. “They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property.”
Separately, the Israeli military issued new orders to residents in parts of central Gaza, instructing them to move west toward Gaza City and warning of “extreme force” in their area. Many Palestinians left the targeted area on foot, some carrying belongings on their backs or using donkey carts.
“My wife and I have been walking for three hours, covering only 1km [0.6 miles],” Mohammad Ermana, 72, told The Associated Press. The couple, each using a cane, held hands as they walked. “I’m searching for shelters every hour now, not every day,” he said.
Also on Thursday, Israel’s military announced it was investigating the deaths of 15 Palestinian aid workers found buried in a shallow grave in March near Red Crescent vehicles, an incident that caused global alarm.
Earlier on Thursday, the Ministry of Health in Hamas-run Gaza reported that 1,163 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory since fighting resumed on March 18 after a six-week ceasefire. More than 50,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023, and at least 114,000 have been wounded. The war began after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed 1,139 people.
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