Israeli airstrikes struck a girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah used by dispalced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 30 Palestinians as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet with international mediators to negotiate a planned cease-fire.
The victims sheltering at the school were brought to Al Aqsa Hospital and proclaimed dead following a strike that Israel’s military claimed targeted a Hamas command and control center used to store weapons and organize assaults, the NBS News reported.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 11 individuals had been killed in separate strikes on Saturday.
Near the hospital, AP journalists witnessed an ambulance speeding down a sandy road while a few others rushed in the opposite direction. A man was injured and laid on a stretcher on the ground. A body wrapped in a blanket and a dead toddler lay inside the ambulance.
Classrooms inside the school were completely destroyed. People were spotted searching for victims under the rubble, while some were gathering the bones of those dead.
Early this Month, Israel bombed the United Nations Relief and Work Agency’s (UNRWA) school Al-Jaouni school which was sheltering displaced Gazans from Al-Nuseirat camps, killing 16 Palestinians and injuring 50 others.
Earlier, Israel’s military ordered the evacuation of a portion of Gaza’s designated humanitarian zone ahead of a scheduled strike on Khan Younis on Saturday.
The evacuation order was issued in reaction to rocket firing, which Israel claimed emanated in the area. The military said it planned an operation against Hamas members in the city, including areas of Muwasi, a congested tent camp in a location where Israel has instructed hundreds of Palestinians to seek safety throughout the conflict.
The anticipated strike comes only one day before officials from the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and Israel are set to meet in Italy to discuss the ongoing hostage and cease-fire discussions.
On Sunday, CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea, and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel, according to officials from the United States and Egypt who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
It is the second evacuation order issued in a week, and it includes striking a portion of the humanitarian zone, a 60-square-kilometer area covered in tent camps with no sanitation or medical facilities and restricted access to aid, according to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations.
The Gaza War has killed over 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between soldiers and civilians.