Israeli attack on a school converted into a shelter in Gaza leaves 27 dead – Diario La Página –

An Israeli attack on a school housing displaced people in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people on Thursday, Palestinian medical officials reported. The Israeli military said the attack targeted militants, but locals said the attack hit a meeting of aid workers.

Israel has continued to attack what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave, as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.

In a separate development, the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalized.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident.

UNIFIL said in a statement that its headquarters and nearby positions “have been repeatedly attacked.” He added that the army also fired at a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. He added that an Israeli drone was seen flying towards the bunker entrance.

Attack on shelter appears to have targeted Hamas-led police
The attack in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah killed 27 people, including a child and seven women, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken. He added that several other people were injured.

An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances arriving at the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.

The Israeli military claimed it had carried out a precise attack on a militant command and control center inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools converted into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of hiding in them.

Witnesses said the attack occurred while school principals were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamas-run police, which provide security. They said there were no police in the room at the time.

The Palestinian branch of Terre des Hommes, a Swiss aid group, said in a statement that members of one of its children’s health teams were killed in the attack, although it did not specify how many.

“There were no militants. There was no Hamas,” said Iftikhar Hamouda, who had fled northern Gaza at the start of the war.

“We headed to the tents. They bombed them… They bombed us in the streets. They bombed us in the markets. They bombed us in schools,” he said. “Where should we go?”

The Hamas-led government operated with a civilian police force consisting of tens of thousands of troops. They mostly disappeared from the streets after the start of the war, when Israel bombed them with airstrikes, but plainclothes Hamas security personnel continue to exercise control in most areas.

Hamas has continued to launch attacks against Israeli forces and fire occasional rockets into Israel more than a year after its Oct. 7 attack started the war.

Hamas-led militants swept into Israel and devastated military bases and farming communities in that attack, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. They still hold about 100 prisoners, of whom a third are dead.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify how many were combatants, but affirm that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced nearly 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

UN peacekeepers caught in heavy fighting in Lebanon
UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after the 1978 Israeli invasion. The UN expanded its mission after the war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone established along the border.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of establishing militant infrastructure right along the border, violating the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. It has warned people to evacuate dozens of communities in southern Lebanon. , many of which are outside the buffer zone.

U.N. peacekeepers chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said last week that U.N. peacekeepers remained in position on Lebanon’s southern border despite Israel’s request to vacate some areas sooner. to launch its ground operation against Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets toward Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, prompting retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.

The fighting steadily escalated and, in recent weeks, eventually escalated into open war, with Israel launching waves of heavy attacks across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion. Hezbollah has expanded its rocket attacks into more populated areas inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.

Israel says the ground invasion, which has so far focused on a narrow strip along the border, is aimed at driving back the militants so tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes in the north. The fighting has displaced more than a million people in Lebanon.

Iran supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups in the region that call themselves the Axis of Resistance against Israel. Iran launched about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in retaliation for the killing of senior Hamas and Hezbollah militants.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that his response to the Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “shocking,” without providing further details, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden. .