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The Israeli military ordered more evacuations in southern Gaza early Sunday after a deadly airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza killed at least 80 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. Israel said the strike targeted a militant command post and killed 19 fighters.
Israeli troops have returned to heavily damaged areas from previous battles with Palestinian militants, and Israel has repeatedly ordered mass evacuations. The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the 10-month war.
Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps with few public services or seeking shelter in schools like the one that was attacked on Saturday. Palestinians say no place in the besieged territory feels safe.
The latest evacuation order applies to the Khan Yunis area, including part of an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, which the military says has been the site of rocket attacks. Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of hiding among civilians and launching attacks from residential areas.
Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, suffered extensive damage in airstrikes and ground assaults earlier this year. Last week, tens of thousands of people fled again after earlier evacuation orders.
Hundreds of families left their homes and shelters with their belongings on Sunday morning in search of hard-to-find shelter.
“We don’t know where to go,” said Amal Abu Yahia, a mother of three who returned to Khan Younis in June to shelter in her badly damaged home. “This is the fourth time I’ve been displaced,” said the 42-year-old widow, whose husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a neighbor’s home in March.
She said they went to the large tented camp of Muwasi in the coastal area but found no space.
Ramadan Issa, a father of five in his 50s, fled Khan Yunis with his family in the early hours of Sunday morning, walking with hundreds of people towards central Gaza.
“Whenever we settled down in a place and set up tents for women and children, the occupiers would come and bomb the area,” he said, referring to Israel. “The situation was unbearable.”
Gaza’s health ministry said the 10-month war has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, but did not say how many were combatants. Aid groups have been struggling to address a dire humanitarian crisis in the region, while international experts have warned of the possibility of famine.
The war broke out on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants broke through Israeli lines and attacked farming communities and military bases near the border, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 people.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to broker a ceasefire and repatriate about 110 remaining hostages, about a third of whom Israeli authorities believe are dead. Meanwhile, the conflict threatens to spark a regional war as Israel trades fire with Iran and its militant allies in the region.
Saturday’s attack hit a mosque inside a school in Gaza City where thousands of people were taking shelter. Gaza’s Health Ministry said 80 people were killed and about 50 were wounded. The Israeli military disputed the casualty toll and said it killed 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in a precision strike, releasing their names and photos.
Hamas and Palestinian activists disputed the military’s account, saying two of the 19 had been killed in previous attacks and the others were civilians or Hamas opponents.
Gaza City and other parts of the north have been surrounded by Israeli troops since late last year, largely cut off from the outside world and making it impossible to independently confirm the claims of either side.
The UN human rights office said Israel had carried out “systematic attacks” on schools that serve as shelters since the start of the war. Since July 4, Israel has carried out at least 21 attacks on schools, killing hundreds of people, including women and children.
European leaders condemned the attack, while the United States expressed concern about reports of civilian casualties. Speaking to reporters traveling with her in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Saturday: “Far too many civilians have been killed.”
“We need a hostage deal, we need a ceasefire,” she said. “It has to happen, and it has to happen now.”
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