At least 30 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were sheltering

At least 30 people, including women and children, have been killed, and more than a hundred people have been injured, including those seriously injured, after an Israeli airstrike with three missiles hit a field hospital set up inside the Khadija school in the center of Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip, the Gaza government controlled by Hamas reported this Saturday.

The enclave’s government condemned in a statement, “We strongly denounce this horrific massacre by the Israeli occupation against a field hospital that provides medical services to dozens of patients and the wounded, all of whom are civilians.”

The Khadija school housed displaced people from other parts of the enclave. The wounded are being transferred to Al Aqsa Hospital, also in the area, where medical teams are working tirelessly with few resources, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry confirmed to EFE.

“These ongoing massacres caused by the Israeli occupation are leading to a collapse of the health system due to the destruction and burning of hospitals, enormous pressure on medical staff, and operating rooms left vacant due to a lack of health supplies,” he condemned the Gazan government.

In addition, the text regrets that the Rafah border crossing at the southern end of the Strip is still closed, where for a long time sick and injured people have gone abroad for treatment and demands the entry of more fuel needed for the operation of hospitals.

He further said, “We call on the international community to stop the genocidal war and the flow of blood in the Gaza Strip.”

In nearly ten months of war, more than 39,000 Gazans have been killed, most of them women and children, more than 90,000 have been wounded and an estimated 10,000 are still trapped under rubble.

Israel issues new evacuation orders in southern Khan Yunis

This Saturday the army has intensified its attacks not only in the center of the Strip, but also in the south, in the city of Khan Younis, where in the early morning it ordered the forced evacuation of the southern areas and asked civilians to leave. Mawasis will displace the area whose perimeter is increasingly limited.

“Due to significant terrorist activity and the launching of rockets from the southern area of ​​Khan Younis towards the State of Israel, it has become dangerous to remain in the area,” the army said in a statement.

Israel says that, according to its intelligence, the Islamist group Hamas has now established “terrorist infrastructure” south of the Mawasi humanitarian area.

“Our forces are about to take action against terrorist organisations and, therefore, we call on the remaining population in the southern areas of Khan Younis to temporarily evacuate to the Mawasi humanitarian area,” he said in the text.

According to their statement, evacuation orders are reaching civilians via SMS messages, recorded voice messages, phone calls, Arabic media broadcasts and leaflets. Gazan sources have confirmed to EFE that the first artillery strikes are already taking place south of Khan Younis.

The area Israel is now asking to be evacuated was already designated as part of the Mawasi humanitarian zone next to Jaun Younis, which has also been bombed on several occasions, meaning there is less space in an area that is already overcrowded. Gazans live in poverty, living in tents without water and without light.

In fact, more than 150,000 Gazans have been forced to leave eastern areas of the southern city of Khan Younis and move to the humanitarian zone of Mawasis in recent days after receiving evacuation orders from the army last Monday.

Two days later, Israeli troops recovered the bodies of five hostages killed during Hamas attacks in that area on October 7. More than 130 Gazans were killed and over 400 injured in the Israeli attack against the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Younis.

“Our forces will continue to take action against the terrorist organization Hamas, which uses Gaza civilians as human shields for its activities and infrastructure,” he warned in his note.

Separately, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported five civilians killed and dozens injured by an Israeli airstrike against a residential house in the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.

According to Wafa, Israeli helicopters also attacked a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the enclave today, wounding several people.