Israel pummels refugee camps in Gaza

GAZA: Israel pressed its bombardment of Gaza as strikes rattled various neighbourhoods and appeared to be focused on central areas of the Palestinian territory.

The onslaught persisted, despite scrutiny on Israel after its warplanes carried out an attack on a UN-run school that a Gaza hospital said killed at least 37 people. The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, saying it targeted “terrorists”.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees that ran the school, condemned Israel for striking the facility housing 6,000 displaced people. In a post on X, the agency said the “school turned shelter” had been hit without prior warning. “Targeting UN premises or using for military purposes cannot become the new norm. This must stop and all those responsible be held accountable,” it said.

The war, now in its ninth month, has brought widespread devastation to Gaza, with one in 20 people dead or wounded, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants are displaced.

Hamas puts death toll at 210

Maher al-Mughair, who lives nearby, recounted the attack on Friday, saying: “We heard what sounded like a drone firing a missile, followed by another coming from an F-16 fighter jet. So we checked and found women and children in pieces. What did the children and women do wrong? They are defenceless people, merely civilians,” he told AFPTV.

On Saturday, five people were killed and seven wounded in the same city when an Israeli jet bombed the Mhana family’s home in Sheikh Radwan area, Gaza emergency services said.

At least 36,801 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 83,680 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 2023, according the health ministry. The toll includes some 70 Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours, it added.

Hamas said, “The number of victims from the Israeli occupation’s massacre in the Nuseirat [refugee] camp has risen to 210 martyrs and more than 400 wounded”.

Meanwhile, in a new diplomatic push, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday.