At least 30 people were killed and many others injured in Israeli attacks on two United Nations-run schools west of Gaza City.
The latest death toll was reported to Al Jazeera by Dr Marwan al-Hams, director of hospitals at the Gaza Ministry of Health.
According to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, 80 percent of those killed and injured in Sunday’s attacks on the Hassan Salama and al-Nasr schools were children.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said schools, which have been used as shelters by displaced Palestinians, were badly damaged.
“This is exactly the same scenario we have seen in recent days. What we know for sure now is that there is [a] concentration of attacks on evacuation centers. What is really worrying about this is… the Israeli military is not giving any advance warning to the people inside these evacuation centers,” Mahmoud said.
The correspondent noted that most of the buildings used as shelters for those displaced in Gaza are schools, as they are the only large spaces currently available to house a significant number of people.
“This is happening in an unpredictable way, causing serious casualties and increasing the trauma of an already displaced population, in some cases, up to five, six or seven times in the northern part of the Gaza Strip,” said Mahmoud.
Sunday’s attacks followed the bombing of a school on Saturday by the Israeli army. Following Sunday’s attacks, at least 15 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Hamama school in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, which was housing displaced Palestinians.
Following Sunday’s attacks, Nebal Farsakh of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told Al Jazeera that the attacks were “further proof that there is no safe place in Gaza”.
“These two schools are home to displaced civilians who have been forced to leave several times, and now even they have been forced to flee again after this attack,” she said.
“Israel has systematically targeted civilians,” Farsakh said.
The Israeli military alleged – without providing evidence – that the “schools were used by Hamas’ Al Furqan Battalion as a hiding place for its terrorist operatives and as command centers used to plan and execute attacks.”
Reporting from Amman, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said these claims by the Israeli army have been seen “time and time again”.
“The military says and continues to say that Hamas is using these sites, but we have never seen any proof,” she said.
“O [Israeli] the military claims that it takes precautionary measures to ensure that minimal harm is caused to civilians through its attacks… but we repeatedly see Palestinian civilians injured or collecting bodies from the rubble, so there is no warning,” Salhut added.
‘There is no place left in the enclave’
Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military also issued a new order for Palestinians to leave the southern and southeastern parts of Khan Younis in Gaza as the army expands its offensive, according to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary in Deir el-Balah.
She said the announcement affects the neighborhoods of Jurat al-Lot, al-Manara, Maan, Kizan, Kizan Abu Rashuan, al-Najjar, as-Salam and al-Hashash.
Residents of these areas have been warned that “any civilian presence in these areas is dangerous and high risk,” she said.
Earlier this month, the United Nations said that more than 86 percent of Gaza has already been affected by Israel’s so-called evacuation orders, with most people being asked to live in small “safe zones” that have also been repeatedly targeted. Israeli attacks.
At least 39,583 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza in October, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed at least 1,139 people on October 7. just in the last 24 hours, the ministry said on Sunday.
Up to 91,398 other people were injured during 10 months of devastating war.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
