Israeli strike on central Gaza school reportedly kills 22

AT least 22 Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded in a strike on Sunday on a UN-run school in central Gaza being used as a shelter by displaced people, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

The Israeli military said it had targeted a number of Hamas “terrorists” operating from Abu Oraiban School in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp.

Witnesses told BBC Arabic there were no armed fighters there and that children were among the casualties.

It was the fifth attack on or near to schools in eight days.

Residents said there were fresh air and artillery strikes in central Gaza on Monday, with five people reportedly killed when a house in Maghazi refugee camp was hit. The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck dozens of “terror targets” across the territory over the past day.

Meanwhile, Hamas said indirect negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel were “ongoing” in the wake of an air strike in the southern al-Mawasi humanitarian area on Saturday that the health ministry said killed more than 90 people.

The Israeli military said it had targeted a compound where the head of Hamas’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif, was hiding with the commander of its Khan Younis Brigade, Rafa Salama.

The military has announced that Salama was killed, but said it is too early to conclude whether Deif also died. Hamas has said Deif is in good health.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 38,660 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. —BBC