RootsOn Thursday, at least 69 people have been killed by the Israeli fire in Gaza, saying rescue teams, as Israel intensified its bombing of the Palestinian region.
According to the Hamas-Run Civil Defense Agency, an air strike in a school-shelter for displaced families in Gaza City killed 15 people. The Israeli army said it targeted a “key” Hamas operative there.
Civil defense also reported that 38 people were killed on their way to queue for assistance, or to take it. The army said that such reports of widespread casualties were “lies”.
It comes as pressure on both Israel and Hamas to push a new ceasefire and hostage release deal by US President Donald Trump.
Trump announced on Tuesday that Israel agreed to “essential conditions” to finalize the 60-day ceasefire. However, there are still obstacles that can prevent a quick agreement.
Hamas has said that it is studying the proposals – whose details are still not made public – but it still wants the end of the war and is an Israeli return from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will travel to Washington on Monday, stressed in the meantime that the Palestinian armed group should be abolished.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that its aircraft had killed about 150 “terrorist targets” in Gaza in the last 24 hours, including fighters, tunnels and weapons.
Gaza’s Hamas-Interested Health Ministry said that 118 people were killed during the same period.
Hamas-Run Civil Defense Agency and Medix said that fifteen people, most of them, when a school housing displaced families were displaced in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, said Hamas-Run Civil Defense Agency and Medix before the morning on Thursday morning.
Witness Wafa al-Aran told the Reuters News Agency: “Suddenly, we found that the tent fell on us and the fire burning … what can we do? Is it appropriate that all these children burnt?”
The IDF stated that it killed a “chief Hamas terrorist” who was working in the “Command-And-Control Center” in Gaza City, without mentioning the school.
The IDF said that to reduce the risk of damaging citizens, several steps were taken and Hamas accused of using the human shield – an charge that the group has repeatedly denied.
At least one and five displaced people were allegedly killed when a tent was killed overnight in the southern Al-Mavasi region, where the IDF has told the residents of the areas affected by their evacuation orders for their own safety.
Ashraf Abu Shaba, who lives in a neighboring tent, said that he later saw the bodies of children and women wrapped in a blanket.
“Business [Israel] Claims are safe areas, but no safe areas. There is a goal everywhere … the situation is unbearable, “he said.
Later, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmood Basal told the AFP News Agency that 38 people were killed by Israeli forces while seeking assistance.
He said that 25 were killed near the Netzerim Corridor of the Israeli Army in Central Gaza. He said that six were killed at another place nearby, while seven were killed in the southern Rafah region.
At Nasar Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, Medics told separate Reuters that at least 20 people were killed while making their way for the aid distribution center.
The IDF did not have a direct response to reports.
RootsLast week, the IDF stated that it was investigating reports of damage to citizens while approaching the sites in the southern and central Gaza operated by the US- and the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
On Thursday, IDF spokesperson Brig-Jen AF Defreen admitted in a briefing that the Israeli army was facing a “complex challenge” and “pulling a lesson” from every event to prevent similar cases in the future.
But he announced: “Reports of allegations of widespread casualties in aid distribution centers are false.”
Since starting the operation of GHF on 26 May, there have been reports of fatal incidents near the distribution sites almost every day.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 408 people have been killed near GHF centers in the last five weeks. Another 175 people have been killed to seek assistance elsewhere, which includes the routes used by the United Nations aid convoy, it says.
GHF, which uses American private security contractors, stated that “distribution on all sites went smoothly” on Thursday and now it was handed over more than a million boxes.
The GHF also dismissed a former security contractor as “clearly false” allegations, who told the BBC that they looked at all the allies to open the fire on citizens waiting for assistance.
The United Nations and other support groups refuse to cooperate with the GHF, saying that its new system violates fundamental human principles.
The United States and Israel say that the GHF system will prevent the theft to be stolen by Hamas.
The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and 251 others were taken hostage.
According to the health ministry of the region, at least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then.
