A day after nearly 100 Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a school, Israel has issued a new evacuation order for Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Tens of thousands of Gaza residents and displaced families were forced to flee the country in the dark, while the explosions of tank fire echoed around them.
The Israeli military claimed it was attacking Hamas, which administered the Gaza Strip before the war and used these areas to launch attacks and rockets.
On Saturday, an Israeli air strike on a school in Gaza City where displaced Palestinians had sought shelter killed at least 93 people, according to the Civil Defense Service, sparking an international outcry.
The shelling of the Al-Tabieen religious school and mosque sparked criticism across the Middle East and beyond, as well as calls for a ceasefire after international mediators urged the warring sides to resume talks on a long-sought truce and the release of the hostages.
According to the Civil Defense Agency, three Israeli rockets hit the complex in Gaza City while people were performing their morning prayers. The military confirmed that it used “three precise munitions”.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense Agency, said 11 children and six women were among the 93 people who died in the school’s emergency shelter, “and there are many unidentified body parts.”
Hamas condemned the incident as a “dangerous escalation,” while the Palestinian group’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah called it a “horrific massacre.”
Iran, which supports both groups and had accused Israel of seeking to spread a war in the Middle East after the spectacular killings in Tehran and Beirut, condemned the attack as what it called a “barbaric attack.”
The Israeli military said it had attacked a Hamas and Islamic Jihad facility, an accusation the two groups denied.
International outcry
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said the timing was indicative of Israel’s efforts to “obstruct and thwart” recent mediation efforts.
One of the mediators, Qatar, called for an “urgent international investigation,” while Turkey said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to “sabotage the ceasefire talks.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was “horrified” by the school strike.
France said: “Israel must respect international humanitarian law.”
“For several weeks, school buildings have been repeatedly attacked, with an intolerable number of civilian casualties,” the French Foreign Ministry said.
Go nowhere
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been forced to flee their homes at least once during the war. Many of them have sought refuge in school buildings, which have been hit at least 14 times since July 6, according to an AFP count.
In Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, the evacuation order covered districts in the center, east and west. It was one of the largest evacuation orders of its kind in the 10-month conflict, two days after tanks returned to the east of the city.
The announcement was posted on X and in text and audio messages to residents’ phones: “For your own safety, you must be immediately evacuated to the newly created humanitarian zone. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone.”
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said people in the Gaza Strip were trapped and had nowhere to go.
“Some can only carry their children, others carry their whole lives in a small bag. They go to crowded places where the shelters are already overflowing with families. They have lost everything and need everything,” he said.
The Israeli army said it had attacked around 30 Hamas targets in the past 24 hours, including military installations.
Islamic Jihad said fighters fired mortar shells at Israeli forces gathering in the eastern areas of Khan Younis.
Later Sunday, four Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike near the Khan Younis market in the center of the city, medics said.
Plumes of smoke rose from areas where Israeli aircraft carried out attacks in the east and west of the city. Residents said two multi-story buildings were bombed.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip since the war began last October, and the number of casualties is rising daily, the Gaza Strip Health Ministry said.
Israel began its genocidal war against Gaza after Hamas invaded Gaza on October 7, in which, according to Israeli figures, 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage.
