At least 12 Palestinians were killed and several others wounded after Israeli forces bombed a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in northern Gaza.
Gaza’s Civil Defence agency on Thursday said the attack took place on a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Since dawn, Israeli raids in Gaza have killed 27 Palestinians, including 19 in the north, where an Israeli military siege has been going on for more than a month.
Medics said at least 30 people were injured in the bombing of the Shati Elementary Boys School, which is linked to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Israel earlier this week officially notified the UN of cutting ties with UNRWA – the main humanitarian agency for the residents in Gaza.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary on Thursday said Israeli forces have been targeting densely populated houses and shelters in northern Gaza for weeks now.
“UN shelters and school shelters are currently the only places Palestinians are staying and seeking refuge because their houses have been bombed,” she said.
“How would anyone on this planet cope, without any food, without any water, without any medicine, aid and also constant bombing and shelling? These Palestinians are trapped under endless fire, endless Israeli and artillery shelling.”
Israel’s genocide in Gaza that began in October last year has killed at least 43,469 Palestinians and wounded 102,561 others – most of them women and children.
The war on Gaza started soon after the Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics.
Evacuation orders
Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Thursday issued a forced evacuation order for several areas in northern Gaza, from which it claimed Palestinian fighters have launched rockets.
“We inform you that the designated area is considered a dangerous combat zone. For your safety, move south immediately,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X along with a map of the area in Gaza City’s northwest.
Palestinians in the north have been forcibly evacuated several times, leading to a sense of constant displacement. The Israeli army has also repeatedly targeted areas it designated as so-called “safe zones”.
Israeli tanks advanced into Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza as drones broadcasted evacuation orders, which were also carried on social media outlets and through text messages on residents’ phones.
Relatives mourn the death of Atef Al-Atout, a Palestinian man who his family said was shot dead as he fled Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]
A resident told the Reuters news agency that after the Israeli forces pushed most Palestinians out of Jabalia, another area in northern Gaza, they are “bombing everywhere, killing people on the roads and inside their houses to force everyone out”.
Palestinian officials say Israel is carrying out an “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians by blocking aid to Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon since the siege on northern Gaza began last month.
The Israeli military claimed on Wednesday that it had to evacuate Jabalia and start evacuating Beit Lahiya so it could battle Hamas fighters it claims have regrouped there.
The army also rejected reports that it would not allow aid to be delivered to that part of the enclave. It said that 300 aid trucks from the United Arab Emirates had arrived at the port of Ashdod and would be sent into Gaza through the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing in the north and Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in the south.
However, UN aid agencies have repeatedly said the amount of aid entering Gaza is not enough to cover the needs of Palestinians who, prior to the war, saw an average of 500 aid trucks entering daily.
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