The latest in a series of strikes on schools being used as shelters killed three in Nuseirat, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense. Israel has said the buildings were being used by Hamas militants as a command center.
Even as the Israeli military shifted its focus to fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, they have continued to bombard Gaza, where strikes across the strip over the last few days have killed several Palestinians, according to local authorities and Palestinian news media.
Israeli forces struck a school building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza on Monday, killing three people, a couple and their daughter, and wounding several others, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense and Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it carried out a strike on Hamas militants who were operating “a command and control center” inside the school building. The statement added that the military took steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. The military’s claims could not be independently verified.
The strike early Monday was the latest in a series of attacks by Israel on schools across the Gaza Strip that it said were being used by Hamas militants as a command center. Thousands of Gazans have sought shelter in schools after being displaced by fighting across the enclave.
On Sunday, the Civil Defense said that seven people had been killed and several others had been wounded in an Israeli strike on a school building in Gaza City that was housing displaced people. On Saturday, Israel said it struck another school in Gaza City, killing 22 people, mostly women and children.
In central Gaza, a mother and her four children were killed, and several others were wounded, in an Israeli strike on the family’s house in Deir al Balah, on Monday, the Palestinian Civil Defense said. Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported that the strike coincided with Israeli helicopter fire and artillery shelling in parts of Gaza City.
Farther south, two people were killed, including a child, in separate Israeli strikes east of Khan Younis, Mahmoud Basal, a Civil Defense spokesman, said in a statement.
Mahmoud Fathi, a 42-year-old resident of Khan Younis, said he heard an explosion Sunday night, and that when he went out to check what had happened in the morning he saw “a fairly large crater in the middle of the road,” but no blood.
“There was no warning, no leaflets, no calls at all,” Mr. Fathi said. He added: “It just happened, which is very common now. They just hit and move on and leave us to deal with it.”
Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London.
Hiba Yazbek covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with a focus on Palestinian affairs and society in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and Israel. More about Hiba Yazbek
