Eyewitnesses at the scene of the strike on a market in Deir al-Balah said most of the casualties were children. Commenting on a strike on a school that killed 12, the IDF said it was targeting a ‘Hamas command center’
Reuters
At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on a school and market in Gaza, according to the enclave’s civil defense authorities.
The Palestinian Civil Defense, first responders operating under the Hamas-run government, said at least 10 people were killed in a strike on the Mustafa Hafez school housing displaced families west of Gaza City. The responders said they were still searching for survivors, and that around 700 people were sheltering at the school when it was hit.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the facility was used by Hamas for planning and executing operations. Before the attack, numerous measures were taken to minimize the risk of civilian casualties, including the use of precision-guided munitions, the army said.
Additional reports in Gaza on Tuesday said that another eight people were killed in a strike on a market in Deir al-Balah, with eyewitnesses claiming that most of the dead are children.
There were also reports of a strike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.
The IDF Spokesperson said that 40 militants were killed in the army’s operations in the southern Gaza district of Rafah over the last 24 hours. The army further reported that it targeted two militants in central Gaza who emerged from a tunnel and attempted to plant explosives next to the Israeli forces.
During an IDF operation in Gaza overnight into Tuesday, the bodies of six hostages, all of whom were taken alive by Hamas on October 7. The hostages are Avraham Munder, Chaim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Alex Dancyg, Nadav Popplewell and Yagev Buchshtab.
The IDF announced the deaths in captivity of five of the six men over the past two months, but Munder’s state was unknown until his body’s retrieval was made public on Tuesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will ‘continue to make every effort to bring back all our hostages – both the living and the dead,’ though the status of hostage release/cease-fire talks with Hamas are still uncertain.
An Israeli source said there is still no date set for the planned Cairo summit meant to take on Wednesday, though the source said it could convene at the end of the week.