DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering in the central Gaza Strip killed at least 17 people on Thursday, nearly all women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strike came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas, and that negotiations over a cease-fire and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages would resume in the coming days.
Another 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, according to the hospital’s records.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has carried out several strikes on schools-turned-shelters in recent months, saying it precisely targets militants hiding out among civilians. The strikes often kill women and children.
Blinken, speaking to reporters in Qatar, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said negotiators would reconvene “in the coming days.”
“What we really have to determine is whether Hamas is prepared to engage,” he said on his 11th visit to the region since the start of the war,
The United States hopes to renew the negotiations after Israeli forces killed top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, but neither side has shown any sign of moderating its demands from months of negotiations that sputtered to a halt over the summer.
Blinken also announced an additional $135 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinians, while again urging Israel to allow more assistance to enter the territory.
Health workers in besieged northern Gaza meanwhile warned of a catastrophic situation there, where Israel has been waging an air and ground offensive for more than two weeks.
Hospital director in northern Gaza says supplies are running out
Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in northern Gaza in recent days. The military says it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, which was one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, said in a video message released Wednesday that some 150 wounded people were being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department.
“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff,” he said.
“Our ambulances can’t transfer wounded people,” he said. “Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don’t just die in the streets.”
Footage shared with The Associated Press shows medical staff tending to premature babies and several older children in hospital beds, some with severe burns. One child is seen attached to a breathing machine, with bandages on her face and flies hovering over her.
