Two hospital directors have informed the BBC at least 54 Palestinians have been killed in two separate Israeli air raids last night, including one on a school sheltering displaced families in central Gaza.
From the village of Beit Lahia, now under heavy Israeli military attack, hundreds of displaced persons have been housed at Gaza City’s Fahmi Al-Jargoway School.
Following flames engulfing two classrooms repurposed into living quarters, a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence claimed 20 bodies, including those of children, were recovered — many were badly burned.
Said the Israeli force (IDF), it had aimed “a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control centre”.
According local accounts among the dead were Mohammad Al-Kasih, the head of investigations for the Hamas police in northern Gaza, along with his wife and children.
Separately, the head of al-Ahli hospital Dr Fadel el-Naim claims that a hit on a residence in Jabalia in northern Gaza killed nineteen persons. Regarding the targets, the Israeli military has not yet made comments.
The twin strikes fit a larger Israeli onslaught that has intensified over the northern portion of the enclave during the previous week.
Over 48 hours, the IDF claimed to have attacked 200 targets across Gaza as it carried on its operations against what it identified as “terrorist organisations”.
