9 women, 3 children among Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Gaza City school shelter
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 59 people, hospital officials said Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a war now entering its 20th month.
The strikes included one attack on Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children. It was the fifth time since the war began that the school in central Gaza has been struck.
An early morning strike on another school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes on targets in other areas killed at least 16 others.
A large column of smoke rose and fires pierced the dark skies above the school shelter in Bureij, a built-up urban refugee camp. Paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull people out from the blaze.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Israel blames Hamas for the death toll because it operates from civilian infrastructure, including schools.
The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies.
Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented until after U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up his visit to the region later this month.
Any escalation of fighting would likely drive up the death toll.
Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones.
'Window of opportunity' for truce amid Trump visit
Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed an aid blockade, drawing warnings from the United Nations that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will expand the offensive against Hamas after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid.
But an Israeli defence official said on Monday that there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump's visit.
A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that the Palestinian militant group would not agree to any interim truce in return for a resumption of aid for a few days, and insisted on a full ceasefire deal to end the war.
Basem Naim said Hamas would not accept "desperate attempts before Trump's visit, through the crime of starvation, the continuation of genocide and the threat of expanding military action to achieve a partial agreement that returns some [Israeli] prisoners in exchange for a few days of food and drink."
The war began on Oct.7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's campaign has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins.
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