At least twelve displaced Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Gaza school | Israeli-Palestinian Conflict News

Israeli raids in Gaza kill another 27 Palestinians, including 19 in the north, where a military siege has been going on for more than a month.

At least 12 Palestinians were killed and several others injured after Israeli forces bombed a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in northern Gaza.

Gaza Civil Defense said on Thursday that the attack took place at a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Since sunrise, Israeli raids in Gaza have killed 27 Palestinians, including 19 in the north, where an Israeli military siege has been going on for more than a month.

Doctors said at least 30 people were injured in the bombing at the Shati Elementary Boys School, which is affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Israel officially notified the UN earlier this week that it was severing ties with UNRWA – the main humanitarian organization for the people of Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said Thursday from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza that Israeli forces have been targeting densely populated homes and shelters in northern Gaza for weeks.

“UN shelters and school shelters are currently the only places where Palestinians are staying and seeking refuge because their homes have been bombed,” she said.

“How could anyone cope on this planet, without food, without water, without medicine, aid and also without constant bombing and shelling? These Palestinians are trapped under endless fire, endless Israeli and artillery shelling.”

Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which began last October, has killed at least 43,469 Palestinians and injured 102,561 others – most of them women and children.

The war on Gaza began shortly after the Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics.

Evacuation orders

Meanwhile, the Israeli army on Thursday issued a forced evacuation order for several areas in northern Gaza, from where Palestinian fighters have launched rockets.

“We inform you that the designated area is considered a dangerous combat zone. For your safety, move south immediately,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a message on X, along with a map of the area in northwest Gaza City.

Palestinians in the north have been forcibly evacuated several times, leading to a sense of continued displacement. The Israeli military has also repeatedly targeted areas it has designated as so-called “safe zones.”

Israeli tanks advanced on Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, while drones broadcast evacuation orders, which were also relayed via social media and text messages on residents’ phones.

One resident told Reuters that after Israeli forces expelled most Palestinians from Jabalia, another area in northern Gaza, they “bombed everywhere, killed people on the roads and in their homes to force everyone out.”

Palestinian officials say Israel is carrying out an “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians by blocking aid to Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon since the siege of northern Gaza began last month.

The Israeli army claimed on Wednesday that it needed to evacuate Jabalia and begin evacuating Beit Lahiya so it could battle Hamas fighters they say have regrouped there.

The military also rejected reports that it would not allow aid to be delivered to that part of the enclave. It said 300 aid trucks from the United Arab Emirates had arrived at Ashdod port and would be sent to Gaza through the Beit Hanoon (Erez) border crossing in the north and the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing in the south.

However, U.N. aid agencies have repeatedly said that the amount of aid entering Gaza is not enough to meet the needs of Palestinians who saw an average of 500 aid trucks entering daily before the war.