At least 69 people have been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza on Thursday, rescuers say, as Israel intensified its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.
One air strike killed 15 people at a school-turned-shelter for displaced families in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency. The Israeli military said it targeted a “key” Hamas operative based there.
The Civil Defence also reported that 38 people were killed while queueing for aid, or on their way to pick it up. The military said such reports of extensive casualties were “lies”.
It comes as pressure mounts on both Israel and Hamas to agree to a new ceasefire and hostage release deal being pushed by US President Donald Trump.
Trump announced on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalize a 60-day ceasefire. However, there are still obstacles that could prevent a quick agreement.
Hamas has said it is studying the proposals – the details of which have still not been made public – but that it still wants an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will travel to Washington on Monday, has meanwhile insisted that the Palestinian armed group must be eliminated.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its aircraft had struck around 150 “terror targets” across Gaza over the previous 24 hours, including fighters, tunnels and weapons.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 118 people had been killed during the same period.
Fifteen people, most of them women and children, were killed when a school housing displaced families in the al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City was struck before dawn on Thursday, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency and medics said.
Witness Wafaa al-Arqan told Reuters news agency: “Suddenly, we found the tent collapsing over us and a fire burning… What can we do? Is it fair that all these children burned?”
The IDF said it struck a “key Hamas terrorist” who was operating in a “command-and-control centre” in Gaza City, without mentioning the school.
The IDF added that it took numerous steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians and accused Hamas of using human shields – an allegation the group has repeatedly denied.
At least another five displaced people were reportedly killed when a tent was struck overnight in the southern al-Mawasi area, where the IDF has told residents of areas affected by its evacuation orders to head for their own safety.
Ashraf Abu Shaba, who lived in a neighbouring tent, said he saw the bodies of children and women wrapped in blankets afterwards.
“The occupation [Israel] claims there are safe zones, but there are no safe zones. Every place is a target… The situation is unbearable,” he added.
Later, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP news agency that another 38 people were killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid.
He said 25 were killed near the Israeli military’s Netzarim corridor in central Gaza. Six died at another location nearby, while seven were killed in the southern Rafah area, he added.
Medics at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis separately told Reuters that at least 20 people were killed while making their way to an aid distribution centre.
There was no direct response to the reports from the IDF.
Last week, the IDF said it was examining reports of civilians being harmed while approaching sites in southern and central Gaza run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
On Thursday, IDF spokesman Brig-Gen Effie Defrin acknowledged at a briefing that Israeli forces were facing a “complex challenge” and drawing “lessons from every incident to prevent similar cases in the future”.
But he declared: “The reports of allegations of extensive casualties in the aid distribution centres are lies.”
There have been reports of deadly incidents near the distribution sites almost every day since the GHF began operating on 26 May.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 408 people have been killed near GHF centres over the past five weeks. Another 175 people have been killed seeking aid elsewhere, including along routes used by UN aid convoys, it says.
The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, said “distribution at all sites ran smoothly” on Thursday and that it had now handed out more than one million boxes of food.
The GHF also rejected as “categorically false” allegations from a former security contractor, who told the BBC that he witnessed colleagues opening fire on civilians waiting for aid.
The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the GHF, saying its new system contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles.
