Airstrike on Gaza School Shelter Kills 25 amid Surge in Israeli Violence

The airstrike on Tuesday afternoon hit the tents of displaced families outside a school in Abassan, east of Khan Younis.

An Associated Press reporter who counted the bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis confirmed that 25 people were killed.

Health officials reported that the deceased included at least seven women and children.

The Israeli military claimed that a warplane attacked a Hamas fighter who participated in the October 7th attack. However, witnesses said the area was crowded at the time of the attack, with one witness estimating around 3,000 people were in the vicinity.

Another witness said there had been no prior warning of the strike.

This strike comes a week after the Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of parts of southern Gaza.

Much of Khan Younis was destroyed in a prolonged assault earlier this year, but many Palestinians had returned to escape another Israeli offensive in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

Elsewhere, Palestinians across Gaza reported an increase in heavy airstrikes this week.

Residents of central Gaza City described helicopter strikes, explosions, and gun battles as Israel expanded its two-week-old offensive in Shuja’iya in eastern Gaza neighborhoods.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza government media office, stated that Israeli strikes on central Gaza areas killed 60 Palestinians and wounded dozens more on Tuesday.

The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of several districts in eastern and western Gaza City.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported receiving dozens of humanitarian distress calls from Gaza City but said it was unable to respond due to the intensity of the bombing.

The recent airstrikes on the blockaded Palestinian territory are among the fiercest since the Israeli slaughter of civilians in Gaza began on October 7.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, described the fighting as “the most intense in months.”

The new fighting has unfolded as international mediators make progress in ceasefire negotiations.

Mediation efforts led by Egypt, Qatar, and the US have since accelerated, with Egyptian media reporting that talks are scheduled to continue in Doha and Cairo this week, attended by CIA Director William Burns and Israel’s Mossad Chief David Barnea.

“There is an agreement over many points,” a senior source told al-Qahera news on Tuesday.

However, speaking on Monday night, Hamas’s Qatar-based political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, warned that the “catastrophic consequences” of the latest battles in Gaza could “reset the negotiation process to square one.”

The resistance group has also accused Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of deliberately trying to thwart the truce talks.