Israeli air strikes killed at least 26 people on Sunday, including 16 at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza, health officials said, as the official death toll nears 45,000 after 15 months of war in the enclave.
Clusters of houses were bombed and set ablaze in three towns, while Israeli forces struck families sheltering in Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza City, according to Reuters, citing medics and residents.
Mohammed Abu Afash, director of Palestinian Medical Relief, an non-government organization in Gaza, also warned of an “environmental disaster” in the north due to the accumulation of bodies in the streets and “their devouring by stray dogs and cats,” adding that the World Health Organization had delivered limited fuel and medical supplies amid the ongoing siege.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The attack on the school-turned-shelter comes after Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Saturday, which killed at least 49 people, including seven during an attack on another school sheltering displaced Palestinians, according to health officials.
They said women and children were among the dead, including a baby girl who was only two days old.
The Israeli military has been operating in northern Gaza for over two months, though the siege of the Gaza Strip has lasted for 15 months, a response to the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack in which roughly 1,200 people were killed in Israel and around 250 people taken hostage.
Since then, nearly 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, while over 105,000 people have been injured, and many victims remain buried under rubble.
Meanwhile, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, tensions have escalated after at least one person was killed following violent clashes between Palestinian Authority forces and Palestinian militants in the city of Jenin.
Western-backed PA forces have set up checkpoints in the city, and claimed its forces were undertaking security operations to restore law and order in its refugee camp suburb, a stronghold of militants alienated from Palestinian leadership.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Saturday that the agency for Palestinian refugees had suspended services in Jenin Camp for another day following the violence, with children unable to attend school and residents cut off from healthcare and other essential services.
“All sides of these internal confrontations need to uphold the basic principles of international law that guarantee the safety of civilians & their access to basic services in all situations,” Lazzarini posted on X.