An Israeli airstrike struck a school in Gaza City on Sunday, killing seven people, according to Palestinian health officials. The Kafr Qasem School was hit around 11 a.m. with dozens of displaced families who were taking shelter inside. The dead included Majed Saleh, the director of the Hamas-run Public Works and Housing Ministry.
The Israeli military said the airstrike targeted Hamas militants operating off of the school compound. It said it had conducted aerial surveillance and other precautions to minimize civilian casualties.
Hamas, the Islamist group ruling Gaza, has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations that it uses civilian facilities for military activities during the nearly yearlong fighting.
This attack is part of an overall escalation of violence within the Gaza Strip, which has coincided with increasing clashes between Israeli forces and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the border in Lebanon and raised new fears of regional unrest.
Besides the attack at the school, six other Palestinians were killed in separate airstrikes across central and southern Gaza, putting the total number of Palestinian fatalities from Israeli strikes on Sunday to 16.
In Rafah, a city abutting the Gaza-Egypt border, witnesses said Israeli tanks rolled into western parts of the city where military operations have been underway since May and took strategic positions atop hills overlooking the coastal road.
Israel’s refusal to cede control of the southern border from Rafah to Egypt has become one of the main sticking points to an international push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The armed wing of Hamas said it fired anti-tank rockets at and set off explosives against Israeli troops in Rafah, attacking positions occupied by the Israeli forces.
The Israeli military said that its Rafah operations have killed many militants and destroyed military infrastructure, including tunnel shafts.
Meanwhile, on the humanitarian side, the health ministry in Gaza said all hospital services could stop within ten days due to critical shortages of vital spare parts and generator fuel.
Now, heavy rain has added to the calamity, flooding makeshift tent camps and other areas. Aya, a displaced resident in Deir Al-Balah, says, “Ten minutes of rain were enough to sink the tents. We don’t want temporary solutions in hell.”
Juliette Touma, Director of Communications at UNRWA, said that with winter approaching, what is mostly needed are additional shelters and supplies to help residents cope with this coming winter. She said that when temperatures plummet along with rain, vulnerable populations-mostly children-are more prone to illness.
This crisis is the latest chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has festered for decades. It began when Hamas launched an assault on Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. Since then, more than 41,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s military, officials say, and all but a few thousand of the coastal enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.
