As the official death toll from 15 months of fighting in the enclave approaches 45,000, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 people on Sunday, including 16 at a school in northern Gaza that was providing shelter to displaced Palestinians, according to health officials.
According to Reuters, which cited residents and medical professionals, Israeli soldiers attacked families seeking refuge at Khalil Aweida school before capturing it and directing them to flee to Gaza City, while clusters of homes were bombarded and burned in three communities.
The World Health Organization has delivered limited fuel and medical supplies amid the ongoing siege, according to Mohammed Abu Afash, director of Palestinian Medical Relief, a non-governmental organization in Gaza. He also warned of a “environmental disaster” in the north due to the buildup of bodies in the streets and their consumption by stray dogs and cats.
A request for response was not immediately answered by the Israeli military.
Health officials say the attack on the school-turned-shelter follows a series of airstrikes by Israel on Saturday that killed at least 49 people, including seven during an attack on another school that was housing displaced Palestinians.
Among the dead, they added, were women and children, including a two-day-old baby girl.
In response to the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack, which claimed around 1,200 Israeli lives and took about 250 captive, the Israeli military has been conducting operations in northern Gaza for more than two months, while the siege of the Gaza Strip has been in place for 15 months.
Since then, over 105,000 people have been injured, approximately 45,000 people have died in Gaza—the majority of them women and children—and many dead are still trapped beneath debris.
Tensions have increased in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, meanwhile, after deadly clashes between Palestinian militants and Palestinian Authority police in the city of Jenin resulted in the death of at least one person.
Checkpoints have been established in the city by Western-backed PA troops, who have also asserted that their forces are conducting security operations to bring law and order back to the city’s refugee camp area, which is a hotbed of militants who have been estranged from Palestinian authority.
After the violence, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini announced on Saturday that the agency for Palestinian refugees had suspended services in Jenin Camp for another day, preventing residents from accessing healthcare and other vital services and preventing children from attending school.
Lazzarini wrote on X that all parties involved in these domestic conflicts must respect the fundamental tenets of international law that provide civilian safety and access to essential services in any circumstance.
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