Israeli military forces continued their offensive in central Gaza Wednesday, a day after an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians killed at least 29 people, according to Palestinian health officials.
The Israeli Defense Forces carried out airstrikes on the towns of Nuseirat and Khan Younis, killing at least six people and leaving several others wounded, according to various news outlets. The Associated Press also says eight people were killed in an airstrike on a home in Deir al-Balah, an area located within a “humanitarian safe zone” where Palestinians have been told by Israel to seek refuge.
Tuesday’s attack on the al-Awda school in Abasan near the southern city of Khan Younis was apparently the fourth Israeli strike in as many days. The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas fighter who took part in the deadly October 7, 2023 raid on southern Israel that precipitated the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Officials said the military was looking into the report that civilians were harmed in the airstrike.
The Gaza health ministry reported that an Israeli strike on Saturday killed 16 people at the United Nations-run al-Jawani school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, where about 2,000 people were sheltering.
The following day another strike killed four at the Sacred Family School in northern Gaza. And an Israeli strike on Monday hit another U.N.-run school in Nuseirat, hospitalizing several people.
Hamas warned on Tuesday that the attacks could put cease-fire talks at risk. And the U.N. Human Rights Office expressed concern about the operation and Israel’s latest civilian evacuation orders.
The U.N. agency said the orders issued Sunday called for civilians to move to the west of Gaza City for safety, only to then have the Israel Defense Forces intensify their strikes on those corridors.
“The U.N. Human Rights Office has repeatedly raised concerns that IDF’s evacuation orders are confusing, often instructing people to relocate to areas where IDF military operations are ongoing,” the agency said in a statement. “We reiterate our call on Israel to take all efforts to ensure the safety of civilians in Gaza.”
UN : War has led to mass starvation across Gaza
Famine has spread across the Gaza Strip, a panel of United Nations experts in Geneva said in a statement on Tuesday.
The experts pointed to the recent deaths of three children: a 6-month-old, a 9-year-old and a 13-year-old.
“All three children died from malnutrition and lack of access to adequate health care,” the panel’s statement said. “With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza.”
When a child dies from malnutrition and dehydration, the experts said, that indicates health and social structures have been attacked and are critically weakened.
“When the first child dies from malnutrition and dehydration, it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold,” the experts said.
The panel called upon “the international community to prioritize the delivery of humanitarian aid by land by any means necessary, end Israel’s siege, and establish a cease-fire.”
Cease fire talks to resume Wednesday
Top intelligence officials from Egypt, Israel and the United States will meet in Qatar Wednesday in the latest effort to secure a ceasefire agreement, according to various news outlets.
CIA Director Bill Burns will hold talks with Abbas Kamael, the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, and Israeli spy chief David Barnea.
Burns and Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, held talks in Cairo Monday with their Egyptian, Israeli and Jordanian counterparts, according to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby.
Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages in their October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 116 hostages, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 38,243 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The health ministry says that Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed or wounded more than 5% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
