CAIRO: At least 16 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza on Saturday, the territory’s health ministry and the official Palestinian news agency said.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. The health ministry said the attack on the school killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 50.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Gaza Civil Emergency Service, said the number of dead could rise because many of the wounded were in critical condition. The attack on the school meant no place in the enclave was safe for families who leave their houses to seek shelters, he said in a statement.

Al-Nuseirat, one of Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, was the site of stepped-up Israeli bombardment on Saturday.

An air strike earlier on a house in the camp killed at least 10 people and wounded many others, according to medics.

In its daily update of people killed in the nearly nine-month-old war, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli military strikes across the enclave killed at least 29 Palestinians in the past 24 hours and wounded 100 others.

Among those killed in separate air strikes were five local journalists, raising the toll of journalists killed since October last year to 158, according to the Hamas-led Gaza government media office.

Gaza health authorities say more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive.

Rafah operations

Israeli forces, which have deepened their incursions into Rafah, in the south of the enclave near the border with Egypt, killed four Palestinian policemen and wounded eight others, in an air strike on their vehicle on Saturday, health officials said.

A statement issued by the Hamas-run interior ministry said the four included Fares Abdel-Al, the head of the police force in western Rafah neighbourhood of Tel Al-Sultan.

The Israeli military said forces continued “intelligence-based operations” in Rafah.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2024