Palestinian media says at the very least 50 killed in Israeli air strike in north Gaza

By Arafat Barbakh and Mohammed Salem

GAZA (Reuters) -The official Palestinian information company mentioned at the very least 50 folks have been killed on Monday in an Israeli air strike that hit two faculties sheltering displaced folks within the north of the Gaza Strip.

The reported assault befell as Israeli bombs additionally rained down on southern areas of the enclave and Israeli troops and tanks pressed a floor marketing campaign in opposition to Hamas militants in that sector.

The strike hit the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza Metropolis, the WAFA company mentioned. It was not instantly attainable to confirm the report independently, and a spokesperson for the Israeli military mentioned it was trying into the report.

It got here as Gaza’s well being ministry mentioned that at the very least 15,899 Palestinians, 70% of them girls or underneath 18s, have now been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes on the enclave since Oct. 7. Hundreds extra are lacking and feared buried in rubble.

Earlier on Monday, Israel ordered Palestinians to depart components of Gaza’s essential southern metropolis, Khan Younis. However residents mentioned that areas which they’d been advised to go to have been additionally coming underneath hearth.

Israel’s army posted a map on social media platform X on Monday morning with round 1 / 4 of Khan Younis marked off in yellow as territory that have to be evacuated directly.

Three arrows pointed south and west, telling folks to move in direction of the Mediterranean coast and in direction of Rafah, a serious city close to the Egyptian border.

Determined Gazans in Khan Younis packed their belongings and headed in direction of Rafah. Most have been on foot, strolling previous ruined buildings in a solemn and silent procession.

However the head of the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees in Gaza (UNWRA), Thomas White, mentioned folks in Rafah have been themselves being pressured to flee.

“Individuals are pleading for recommendation on the place to seek out security. We now have nothing to inform them,” he mentioned on X.

Israel launched its assault to wipe out Hamas, which guidelines Gaza, in retaliation for an Oct. 7 cross-border assault by its gunmen. They killed 1,200 folks and seized 240 hostages, in keeping with Israeli tallies.

(Reporting by Mohammed Salem and Roleen Tafakji in Gaza, Maayan Lubell, Ari Rabinovich and Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Maggie Fick in Beirut, Andrew Mills in Doha, Writing by Peter Graff and Angus MacSwan; Modifying by Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich)