An Israeli strike on a school converted into a shelter in Gaza City has killed at least 27, rescuers reported, and hundreds of thousands along the Rafah region are on the move in one of the war’s largest mass displacement movements as Israel launched its new campaign to “divide up” the Gaza Strip.
Missiles Send by Israel Hit Dar al-Arqam School
Three missiles struck Dar al-Arqam school in the al-Tuffah district on Thursday afternoon, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said, killing several children and injuring 100 people.
The building had been serving as a shelter for Palestinian displaced people who had been forced out of their homes. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had made every effort to spare civilians in the bombing of what it called a militant group Hamas control centre.
Further Israel Airstrikes Raise Death Toll in Gaza
A further 20 were killed in a pre-dawn airstrike on the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, taking the overall number of casualties tallied by the local health ministry to 97 in the last 24 hours.
The massive wave of Israeli bombing follows a significant escalation of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) air and ground attacks in the blockaded Palestinian territory since Israel’s withdrawal from a two-month-old truce two weeks ago.
The Israeli army reported Thursday that it had hit over 600 “terror targets” throughout the strip since restarting mass-scale airstrikes on 18 March. Gaza’s health ministry, upon which the UN bases casualty numbers, reports that 1,163 have been killed in bombings since the ceasefire fell apart.
Benjamin Netanyahu Announces Seizure of Territory
On Wednesday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, described the army as “dividing up” and “seizing territory” from Gaza. The strip has had humanitarian aid, food, and fuel supplies blocked by Israel for more than a month as a way to squeeze Hamas.
He did not specify how much Palestinian territory Israel planned to seize in the resumed offensive, but under Ocha, the UN aid agency, the IDF has designated 64% of the land as military buffer zones and “no-go” civilian zones.
Fear of Permanent Displacement Grows
Netanyahu’s most recent announcement has rekindled the fear of permanent displacement for the strip’s 2.3 million people. It will also likely exacerbate concerns that Israel is seeking to take permanent control of the territory.
Mass Exodus from Rafah Amid Bombing
Thursday saw local media video documenting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians leaving the southern city of Rafah and its environs, as Israeli ground forces moved forward to establish Netanyahu’s newly declared security corridor. Travel was hindered, however, by no less than three Israeli attacks on the two major roads north.
New Corridor Splits Southern Gaza and Death Toll Rises
The “Morag route” takes its name from a Jewish community once located between Khan Younis and Rafah, implying the new military area will divide the two southern cities like Israel’s Netzarim corridor, south of Gaza City.
The Gaza war was prompted by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 invasion of Israel, in which Israel claims 1,200 men, the vast majority of whom were civilians, were killed and 250 more abducted. At least 50,357 individuals in Gaza, the majority of whom were civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory assault, the territory’s health ministry says.
Attempts by Qatari and Egyptian mediators to resume talks on a ceasefire have yet to succeed.
