ISRAELI air strikes destroyed a school used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, including several children.
Seven children and seven women were reportedly among the dead taken from the girls’ school in Deir al-Balah to al-Aqsa Hospital.
Israel’s military said that the air raid was targeted at a Hamas command centre used to direct attacks against Israeli troops and store “large quantities of weapons.”
Hamas slammed the Israeli claim as false.
Civil defence workers in Gaza said thousands had been sheltering in the school, which also contained a medical site.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least another 12 people were killed in other strikes on Saturday.
Israel’s military on Saturday ordered a new evacuation of part of a so-called humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis in the south.
The military said that it planned an operation against Hamas militants, including in parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in a zone where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge. It’s the second evacuation order issued in a week.
Israel expanded the roughly 20 square mile zone in May to take in people fleeing the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had crowded.
“This is my ninth or eighth displacement,” said Mohammad Jaber, who was originally displaced from Rafah.
“Every time they tell us to go to an area, it is unsafe. This time, we do not know where to go.”
Gaza Health Ministry officials said that the evacuation orders had forced at least three health centres to stop providing care.
Israel estimates that about 1.8 million Palestinians shelter in the zone. In November, the military said the area could still be struck and that it was “not a safe zone, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.
Juliette Touma, the director of communications for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said: “These are forced displacement orders,” sating that Palestinians have “very little time to move.”
Meanwhile, the far-right Israeli coalition government continued to come under pressure at home to agree to a ceasefire.
On Saturday night, Israelis again held a huge anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv demanding a ceasefire deal and the return of remaining hostages.
“There’s a deal on the table and we need to make it happen, and we need to make it happen now,” said one protester, Tamir Guytsabary.
