Dozens of people, including a child, were killed on Saturday after an Israeli strike hit a private school in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, where displaced Palestinians were taking refuge. The strike occurred as international mediators prepared to meet with Israeli negotiators to discuss a proposed cease-fire.
The Israeli military claimed that the school was being used as a Hamas command center, a claim that Hamas denied. Among the dead were seven children and seven women, who were taken to Al Aqsa Hospital. Civil defense workers reported that thousands of people had been sheltering in the school, which also contained a medical site.
Gaza's Health Ministry reported at least 12 additional deaths from other strikes on the same day. Officials from the U.S., Egypt, Qatar, and Israel were scheduled to meet in Italy on Sunday to discuss cease-fire negotiations.
Israel's military also ordered the evacuation of a part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis. The evacuation order was in response to rocket fire that Israel said originated from the area. Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip fled from parts of Khan Younis following the evacuation order.
In the occupied West Bank, a 17-year-old and a 24-year-old were killed, and 22 others were wounded after an Israeli drone strike in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. The Israeli military said the strike was in response to terrorist activity in the area.
The war in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of over 39,200 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The United Nations estimated in February that some 17,000 civilians had been killed, and the number is likely to have grown since.
The conflict began with a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 hostages are still in Gaza, with about a third believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
The ongoing violence has raised concerns about the potential for a wider regional conflict, as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have also escalated.
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