Children look on, as Palestinians inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, December 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Israeli troops killed at least 22 Palestinians, most of them in the northern Gaza Strip, on Sunday (December 15, 2024) in airstrikes and other attacks on targets that included a school sheltering displaced Gazans,” medics and residents said.

They said at least 11 of the dead were killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City houses, nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia camp and two were killed by drone fire in Rafah.

Residents said clusters of houses were bombed and some set ablaze in the three towns. The Israeli Army has been operating in the towns for over two months.

The Israeli military said the three Gaza City houses belonged to militants planning imminent attacks. It said steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians beforehand, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.

The military issued a photo showing the weapons it said were seized in Beit Lahiya that included explosives and dozens of grenades.

“In Beit Hanoun, Israeli forces besieged families sheltering in Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza City,” the medics and residents said.

Medics said several people were killed and wounded during the raid on the school while the Army detained many men. The number killed was not immediately clear.

The military said it struck down dozens of militants from the air and on the ground and captured others in Beit Hanoun.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing to depopulate the areas at the northern edge to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it and says the campaign targets Hamas militants and aims to prevent them from regrouping. The military says it has instructed civilians to evacuate battle zones for their own safety.

The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel then launched an air, sea and land offensive that has killed almost 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.

A bid by Egypt, Qatar and the United States to reach a truce has gained momentum in recent weeks, yet there has been no news of a breakthrough.

Palestinians carry casualties at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinian medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has climbed to 21.

One year into the Israel-Hamas war: A timeline of the major events since October 7

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah confirmed the toll, and an Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.

Witnesses say the strike on Thursday (October 10, 2024) appeared to target a makeshift post manned by Hamas-run police inside the school.

Palestinians grieve at the funeral for more than 15 people, including several children and women, killed in an Israeli strike, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

As mediators expressed optimism for an imminent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, violence raged on Saturday (August 17, 2024) in the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli airstrike killed at least 18 persons, all from the same family.

The attack came days after the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced the death toll surpassed 40,000 in the 10-month-old war, and hours after officials from the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar ended two days of cease-fire talks with a message of hope that a deal could be reached.

A joint statement from the mediators said a proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas was presented and they expected to work out the details of how to implement the possible deal next week in Cairo.

The mediation efforts are aimed not just at securing the release of scores of Israeli hostages and stopping the fighting that has devastated Gaza, where aid and health workers fear a possible polio outbreak. They are also aimed at calming regional tensions that have threatened to explode into a broader war if Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon attack Israel in retaliation for the recent killings of top militant leaders.

Saturday’s airstrike in Gaza hit a house and adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance to Zawaida town, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter there counted the dead.

Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children ages 2 to 22, the children’s grandmother and three other relatives, according to a list provided by the hospital.

“He was a peaceful man,” said Abu Ahmed, a neighbour who was slightly wounded. More than 40 civilians were sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time, he said.

Footage showed bulldozers removing rubble from the heavily damaged warehouse.

The Israeli military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, said it was checking the report. It said Saturday (August 17, 2024) it was continuing attacks on militants in central Gaza, including one seen launching rockets at troops.

Meanwhile, another mass evacuation was ordered for parts of central Gaza. In a post on X, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Palestinians in areas in and around the urban Maghazi refugee camp should leave. He said Israeli forces will operate in them in response to Palestinian rocket fire.

The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the fighting, often multiple times, and around 84% of the territory has been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the United Nations.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 were released in a November cease-fire. Around 110 are believed to be in Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third are dead.

Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants, without providing evidence.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday at least 40,074 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The Ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Mediators have spent months pursuing a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Efforts took on new urgency in recent weeks as diplomats hoped a deal would persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that was widely blamed on Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since the war started, and an Israeli strike Saturday killed at least 10 Syrians, including a woman and her two children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot.

In what appeared to be a sign of confidence, mediators were beginning preparations for implementing the cease-fire proposal even before it was approved, said an American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with rules set by the White House.

The official said an “implementation cell” was being established in Cairo to focus on logistics — including freeing hostages, providing humanitarian aid for Gaza and ensuring the deal’s terms are met.

But Hamas cast doubt on whether an agreement was near, saying the latest proposal diverged significantly from a previous iteration they had accepted in principle.

Both sides agreed in principle to a plan announced on May 31 by U.S. President Joe Biden. But Hamas has proposed amendments, and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of trying to block a deal.

The U.S. official said the latest proposal is the same as Biden’s, with some clarifications based on ongoing talks. The way it’s structured poses no risk to Israel’s security but enhances it, he added.

Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants.

But Israel showed flexibility during the talks on retreating from the border corridor, and a meeting between Egyptian and Israeli military officials was scheduled for the following week to agree on a withdrawal mechanism, according to two Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private negotiations.

Israel insisted on keeping control of the road bisecting Gaza, but U.S. mediators vowed to return to the talks next week with a compromise on that demand, the officials said.

As part of diplomacy aimed at securing the deal, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Cairo on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to travel to Israel over the weekend and was expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Palestinians inspect a school sheltering displaced people following an Israeli strike, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on July 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli airstrikes hit a school and a hospital in central Gaza on Saturday as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet international mediators to discuss a proposed cease-fire.

At least 30 people sheltering at a girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah were taken to Al Aqsa Hospital and pronounced dead after a strike that Israel’s military said targeted a Hamas command and control centre used to store weapons and plan attacks.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said 11 people were killed in other strikes on Saturday.

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation of a part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis on Saturday, as the country’s negotiators prepare to meet international mediators to discuss a proposed cease-fire.

The evacuation order is in response to rocket fire that Israel said originated from the area. The military said it planned an operation against Hamas militants in the city, including parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in an area where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge throughout the war.

The planned strike comes a day before officials from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy and discuss the ongoing hostage and cease-fire negotiations. CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel on Sunday, according to officials from the U.S. and Egypt who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss the plans.

It’s the second evacuation order issued in a week that has included striking part of the humanitarian zone, a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. Israel expanded the zone in May to take in people fleeing Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had crowded.

According to Israeli estimates, about 1.8 million Palestinians are currently sheltering there after being uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign. In November, the military said the area could still be struck and that it was “not a safe zone, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it was increasingly difficult to know how many people would be affected by the evacuation order because those sheltering under there were constantly being displaced.

“Referring to the orders as evacuation orders don’t do any justice to what this means,” said Juliette Touma, the agency’s director of communications.“These are forced displacement orders. What happens is when people have these orders, they have very little time to move.”

Further north, Palestinians mourned the deaths of seven killed by Israeli airstrikes overnight on Zawaida, in central Gaza. Members of two families — parents and their two children as well as a mother and her two children — were wrapped in traditional Islamic white burial shrouds as community members gathered to perform funeral rights. As men lined up to pray in front of the bodies, weeping friends and neighbours approached individually to pay their final respects.

Deir al-Balah’s Al Aqsa hospital confirmed the count and Associated Press journalists saw the bodies.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.