At least 30 people have lost their lives and many others have been injured in Israeli airstrikes on two United Nations-operated schools in the western part of Gaza City. The latest death toll was reported to Al Jazeera by Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of hospitals at the Gaza Ministry of Health.
According to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, 80 percent of the dead and injured during Sunday’s attacks on the Hassan Salama and al-Nasr schools were children. Al Jazeera’s reporter Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, noted that these schools, which have been used as safe havens for displaced Palestinians, have sustained significant damage.
“This is the same exact situation we have seen in recent days. What we know for sure right now is that there is a concentration of attacks on evacuation centers. What is really concerning is that the Israeli military is not giving any prior warning to people inside these evacuation centers,” Mahmoud stated.
He added that most buildings used as safe places for the displaced in Gaza are schools, as they are the only large spaces available to accommodate a significant number of people. “This is happening in an unpredictable manner, resulting in severe losses and increasing trauma for a population that has already been displaced multiple times,” he said.
Sunday’s attacks followed the bombing of a school on Saturday, where Israeli forces struck the Hamama school in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, which housed displaced Palestinians and killed at least 15 people.
Nebal Farsakh from the Palestinian Red Crescent told Al Jazeera after Sunday’s attacks that these strikes “again prove that there is no safe place in Gaza.” “These two schools house displaced civilians who have been forced to flee multiple times, and now they have been forced to flee again after this attack,” she stated.
Farsakh accused the Israeli military of systematically targeting civilians. The Israeli military claimed—without providing evidence—that the schools were used by Hamas’s Al Furqan Battalion as hiding places for militants and as command centers for planning and executing attacks.
Al Jazeera reporter Hamdah Salhut reported from Amman that these claims from the Israeli military have been seen “time and again.” “The military continues to assert that Hamas uses these sites, but we have never seen any evidence,” she said.
Later on Sunday, the Israeli military issued a new order for Palestinians to evacuate the southern and southeastern parts of Khan Younis in Gaza, while the offensive expands. According to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, this announcement affects several neighborhoods in the area.
According to the United Nations, over 86 percent of Gaza has already been impacted by Israel’s so-called evacuation orders, where most people are being asked to live in small “safe zones,” which have also repeatedly been subjected to Israeli strikes. Since Israel began its offensive against Gaza in October, at least 39,583 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Israeli military claims to have killed 33 people and injured 118 others in the past 24 hours alone, the ministry reported on Sunday. Up to 91,398 others have been injured during nearly ten months of devastating conflict.