The Israeli military said on Friday it had launched an offensive in central Gaza, killing dozens of fighters, including those who had barricaded themselves in the compound of a former United Nations school that was being used as a shelter in the area.
The army said Hamas fighters targeted a school compound in Shati, a coastal district northwest of central Gaza City, leaving an unknown number of dead and wounded.
“Hamas has systematically, deliberately and strategically set up its infrastructure and operates from civilian areas in complete violation of international law, endangering the lives of Gaza’s civilians,” the Israeli military said in a statement after the attack.
Friday’s attack came a day after a similar attack on a school facility near Nuseira that was sheltering displaced people. Gaza health officials said women and children were among those killed in that attack.
Israel on Friday fully defended Thursday’s raid, saying its forces targeted between 20 and 30 militants who were using three classrooms in a former school as their base.
The attack on the UN compound in central Gaza reflects Israel’s desperate efforts to re-pacify an area where officials previously said Hamas had been largely defeated.
Number and identities of those killed Nusseirat’s announcement on Thursday remains controversial, with Gaza’s health ministry and officials at the hospitals where the victims were taken giving differing figures, and an Israeli military assessment offering a third explanation.
Palestinian authorities put the death toll at between 41 and 46. Yasser Khattab, an official in charge of the morgue at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital near Deir al-Ba’a, said 18 of the victims were children and nine were women.
The Israeli military on Friday released the names of eight Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters it said were killed in the attack, adding to a list released on Thursday, bringing the total number of fighters identified so far to 17.
Late Thursday, Israeli forces bombed Nuseira city hall, killing at least five people, including Mayor Iyad al-Maghari. Video shared by Palestinian news agencies showed scores of bodies, including those believed to be children, lying on the floor of a morgue.
The death toll from these attacks could not be independently confirmed.
Following the war between Israel and Hamas that has killed 36,000 people in Gaza, according to a Gaza health official, the United Nations announced on Friday that it was placing Israel on its list of international offenders responsible for violations harmful to children. Hamas was also on the list.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the report in a statement, saying his country’s military is “the most moral military in the world, and no delusional decision by the UN will change that.”
Israeli forces continued their offensive on Friday towards the southern Gaza city of Rafah, seizing control of much of the border with Egypt. The army said it was carrying out “intelligence-based targeted operations” but did not provide details.
The fighting came as U.S. officials continued to press for a ceasefire, and the State Department said Friday that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken would visit Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar next week to push for a deal.
Since fighting began in the wake of a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, Hamas and other Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have waged guerilla warfare using a vast network of underground tunnels and ambushed Israeli forces with booby traps. Israeli forces have returned to former battlefields, such as Bureiji in the central Gaza Strip, in an effort to crack down on what they say is a renewed Hamas insurgency there.
“We know that Hamas is still present and still has capabilities above and below ground,” Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner told reporters on Thursday, describing attacks by “smaller militant groups” using rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and booby traps as continuing.
The Israeli military said Hamas fighters emerged from a tunnel just a few hundred feet into Israeli territory on Thursday and attempted to launch attacks into the country. Israeli drones and tanks opened fire on the fighters, killing three, the military said. An Israeli soldier was also killed in the firefight.
Since Israel’s military offensive in Rafah, the number of commercial trucks transporting badly needed international aid has fallen, although it has increased, as aid workers say the humanitarian crisis remains severe.
The U.S. military said Friday it had reconnected a pier designed to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip’s coast. A $230 million floating dock that U.S. officials hailed as a solution to get more aid to the starving region collapsed in rough seas more than a week ago.
Farnaz Fassihi and Michael Crowley Contributed report.