Israeli airstrike on Gaza school kills 15 displaced Palestinians

CAIRO/RAMALA:

At least 15 Palestinians were killed Saturday by an Israeli airstrike on a school hosting displaced people in Gaza City, hours after two raids in the occupied West Bank killed nine militants, including a local Hamas commander, Hamas said.

The Israeli military said the first of two airstrikes in the West Bank hit a vehicle in a town near the town of Tulkarm, targeting a resistance cell it said was on its way to launch an attack.

A Hamas statement said one of the dead was a Tulkarm brigade commander, while its ally Islamic Jihad claimed the other four men killed in the attack were its fighters.

Hours later, a second airstrike in the area targeted another group of militants who had fired on troops, the Israeli military said, during what it described as an anti-terrorist operation in Tulkarm.

The Palestinian WAFA news agency reported that four people were killed in that strike, and Hamas said that all nine of those killed in the two Israeli attacks in the West Bank were militants.

Violence in the West Bank was on the rise before the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and has since increased, with frequent Israeli incursions into the territory, which is among those sought by Palestinians for statehood.

There has also been an increase in street attacks against Israel by Palestinians.

Gaza strikes

In the Gaza Strip, at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school hosting displaced persons in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, the government’s Hamas media office said.

The Israeli military said the school was being used as a command center for Hamas, to hide militants and manufacture weapons. Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals.

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli raids in the enclave killed six people in a house in the southern Rafah area and two others in Gaza City, Gaza health officials said.

The Israeli military said its forces hit militants and destroyed Hamas infrastructure in Rafah and elsewhere in the enclave.

At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. The attack was sparked by a Hamas-led offensive in southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 kidnapped, according to Israeli accounts.

A high-level Israeli delegation made a brief visit to Cairo on Saturday in a bid to resume Gaza ceasefire negotiations, sources at the Egyptian airport authority said. The delegation returned to Israel hours later, Israeli media reported.

Also read: Iran expects Hezbollah to strike Israel deeper

Chances of a revolution appear low as regional tension has soared after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fouad Shukr, a top military commander of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which just as Hamas is supported by Iran.

Haniyeh’s death was one in a series of assassinations of senior Hamas figures as the war in Gaza approaches its 11th month and fueled concerns that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider war in the Middle East.

Hamas and Iran have both accused Israel of carrying out Haniyeh’s assassination and have vowed to retaliate. Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the death.

Italy called on Iran on Saturday to show restraint.

“Italy appeals to Iran, calling on it to exercise restraint and contribute to a phase of de-escalation in the entire Mediterranean region and the Middle East,” the foreign ministry said, adding that the message was given to Iran’s ambassador in Rome.