Written by Nidal Al-Maghribi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed at least 22 Palestinians, most of them in the northern Gaza Strip, on Sunday in air strikes and other attacks on targets including a school housing displaced people from Gaza, medics and residents said.
They added that at least 11 of the dead were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes on homes in Gaza City, nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia Camp, and two were killed by drone fire in Rafah.
Residents said that groups of homes were bombed and some were set on fire in the three towns. The Israeli army has been operating in the towns for more than two months.
The Israeli army said that the three homes in Gaza City were owned by militants planning imminent attacks. It said steps had been taken to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians in advance, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.
The army published a photo showing the weapons it seized in Beit Lahia, which included explosives and dozens of hand grenades.
In Beit Hanoun, the occupation forces surrounded families who took refuge in the Khalil Aweida School, before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza City, according to what paramedics and residents reported.
Medics said that several people were killed and injured during the raid on the school, while the army arrested several men. The number of deaths was not immediately clear.
The army said it shot down dozens of militants by air and on the ground and arrested others in Beit Hanoun.
Separately, Israel said its air force bombed a command and control center in a compound in the Abu Shabak clinic in northern Gaza that Hamas used to store weapons and plan attacks. The Gaza Ministry of Health said the medical centre, which also included a mental health clinic, was destroyed.
The Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing to evacuate areas on the northern edge to create a buffer zone. Israel denies this and says the campaign targets Hamas activists and aims to prevent them from regrouping. The army says it has instructed civilians to evacuate the combat areas for their safety.
The war began when the Palestinian Hamas movement stormed Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel then launched an air, sea and land offensive that killed nearly 45,000 people, most of them civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, displacing almost the entire population and leaving most of the Strip in ruins.
An attempt by Egypt, Qatar and the United States to reach a truce has gained momentum in recent weeks, but there has been no news of a breakthrough.
(Reported and written by Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Editing by Howard Goller)
