GAZA/JERUSALEM - At least 17 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed on Tuesday when an Israeli airstrike hit a school sheltering displaced people east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Palestinian Civil Defense said.
Photos from the scene showed the bodies of young girls among the dead. Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Xinhua that rescue teams were still searching the rubble, with entire families feared trapped beneath the debris.
Eyewitnesses said the airstrike struck without any warnings, destroying parts of the school and sending panic through the displaced people inside. Victims' bodies were scattered by the force of the explosion, they said, as smoke rose from the site and residents screamed for help.
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Khalil Al-Daqran, a spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, said most of the injured arriving at the facility were in critical condition. "The situation at the hospital is catastrophic," he said, warning that the death toll could rise as more victims remain under the rubble.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee confirmed the airstrike, saying Israeli forces had targeted a Hamas command and control compound in central Gaza. In a statement, he said the facility was being used by militants to plan attacks and store weapons.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), along with the Shin Bet intelligence agency, carried out the strike based on what Adraee described as "precise intelligence." He said the compound housed "a number of armed terrorists."
Israel resumed major military operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States in January.
Gaza's health authorities said on Tuesday that 2,507 Palestinians had been killed and 6,711 wounded since the resumption of Israeli strikes, bringing the total death toll since the war began in October 2023 to 52,615, with 118,752 injured.
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Hamas on Tuesday condemned Israel's recent cabinet approval to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip, arguing that the decision signals a blatant disregard for the lives of Israeli hostages there.
In a press statement, Hamas said that Israel's actions suggest it is willing to sacrifice hostages in favor of escalating "military aggression."
Hamas described the Israeli government's move as "explicitly sacrificing the hostages" in order to pursue a broader military campaign.
The group called on Arab and Islamic nations, as well as the international community, to take immediate action to halt the "crimes" and ensure that Israeli leaders are held accountable under international law for their actions.
A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Israel is exerting maximum pressure on Hamas to accept its controversial proposal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, only to resume hostilities later.
Meanwhile, Hamas on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump's remarks accusing the movement of controlling humanitarian aid in Gaza, considering it "justification for the crime of systematic starvation".
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"It is not enough for Trump to ask (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to 'send some food,'" said the statement, urging the US administration to "stop providing cover for Israel's starvation policy in the Gaza Strip, and to pressure it to halt its offensive and open the crossings, which have been closed for more than two months, to allow the entry of all essential life-saving materials."
Israeli authorities were attempting to impose a new aid distribution system that would funnel humanitarian supplies through military-controlled hubs, rather than allowing UN agencies and NGOs to operate independently, according to a recent press release from the United Nations.
