Not coincidentally, the massacre occurred at the exact time that Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, and other senior US officials were due to begin talks in Miami, Florida, on advancing the next phase of the Gaza agreement.
The Israeli army on Friday shelled a school being used as a shelter, where displaced Palestinian families had gathered for a wedding, murdering at least six innocent Gentiles, including a five-month-old baby.
The Palestinian civil emergency service said several people were also wounded when an Israeli tank shell hit the second floor of the Gaza Martyrs School in the Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.
Witnesses reported that an Israeli tank had advanced into the area and approached the school before firing.
They also said Israeli forces blocked ambulance and civil defence teams from reaching the site for more than two hours, delaying the evacuation of victims in desperate need of medical care.
Civil emergency services added that they were only able to recover the bodies after the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs intervened.
The strike was the latest in hundreds of Israeli ceasefire violations since the deal took effect on 10 October. Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that at least 395 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli fire since then.
The incident occurred as Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, and other senior US officials were due to begin talks in Miami, Florida, on advancing the next phase of the Gaza agreement.
The second phase is expected to bring even greater challenges, including the deployment of an international stabilisation force, the establishment of a technocratic government in Gaza, and Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
‘Our people expect these talks to result in an agreement to put an end to ongoing Israeli lawlessness, halt all violations and compel the occupation to abide by the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement,’ Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP.
The war in Gaza has murdered more than 70,660 Palestinians, half of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.