Israel-Gaza war live: dozens reported dead after Israeli strike on Gaza school

As we just said, dozens of people have been reported killed and injured after an Israeli strike on the Tabeen school in Gaza City overnight.

Here’s what we know so far:

• The Hamas run government says more than 100 people were killed in the strike, with many others injured.

• Gaza health officials, however, put the death toll at around 60.

• The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force targeted a command and control centre where Hamas commanders and operatives were hiding.

• The IDF said it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians, “including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information”. It did not immediately comment on the casualty reports from Gaza.

• Three missiles ripped through the school and the mosque inside, where about 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter from the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defence first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.

• Bassal added the death toll was expected to rise

Hello. We are restarting our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of the latest.

Hamas says more than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a Gaza school sheltering displaced people, while local health authorities put the total number of dead at 60.

The Israeli army said it had hit a Hamas command centre.

“The Israeli strikes targeted the displaced people while performing Fajr [dawn] prayers, a matter led to a rapid increase in the number of casualties,” the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said in a statement, Reuters reported.

The Israeli army said its air forces “struck command and control centre served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders”.

“The IAF [Israeli air force] precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the Al-Taba’een school and located adjacent to a mosque in Daraj Tuffah, which serves as a shelter for the residents of Gaza City,” the army said in a statement.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information,” it added.

In other news:

• Israeli tanks returned to the southern Gaza City of Khan Younis on Friday, forcing thousands to evacuate along congested roadways, as Palestinian fighters continued to attack Israeli troops from the ruins. Families fled eastern Khan Younis in vehicles and on foot, belongings heaped on donkey carts and motorcycle rickshaws as they made their slow escape along congested roads. The Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering residents and displaced people sheltering in the city to evacuate from an area that has already seen repeated waves of fighting.

• Iran is set to carry out an order by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to “harshly punish” Israel over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, a Revolutionary Guards deputy commander was quoted as saying on Friday by local news agencies. Ali Fadavi said Khamenei’s orders were “clear and explicit” and “will be implemented in the best possible way”. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, asked about Fadavi’s remarks, said the US was ready to defend Israel with plenty of resources in the region, adding: “When we hear rhetoric like that we’ve got to take it seriously, and we do.”

• An Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south Lebanon city of Sidon on Friday killed a Hamas commander, the Palestinian militant group and the Israeli military said. Hamas said its “commander” Samer al-Hajj was killed. The group’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, called Hajj a “field commander” in a separate statement, saying his death was an “assassination”. The Israeli military said its aircraft struck the Sidon area and “eliminated” Hajj, whom it identified as “a senior commander” for Hamas in Lebanon.

• US secretary of state Antony Blinken told Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in a phone call on Friday that the escalation of tensions in the Middle East was “in no party’s interest” while also stressing the need for a Gaza ceasefire, the State Department said.

• A crude oil tanker was struck four times in suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. The Houthis did not immediately claim the assaults, though they follow a months-long campaign by the rebels targeting shipping through the Red Sea corridor over Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.

• The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was deeply concerned by Israel’s decision to revoke the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian diplomats dealing with the Palestinian Authority. “Norway has long played a unique and valued role in supporting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We urge Israel to reconsider,” the FCDO said in a statement on Friday.

• Dozens of countries, academics and rights groups have filed legal arguments either rejecting or supporting the international criminal court’s power to issue arrest warrants in its investigation into the war in Gaza and the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel. The slew of written submissions are likely to delay a decision by a panel of judges on whether to issue warrants and comes despite a 2021 ruling that the court has jurisdiction over territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 six-day war.

• Lebanon would struggle to meet even a fraction of its aid needs if full-scale war with Israel erupted, a senior official said, as it seeks increased donor support amid persistent border clashes. Nasser Yassin, the minister overseeing contingency planning for a wider conflict, told Reuters that Lebanon would need $100m monthly for food, shelter, healthcare and other needs in a worst-case scenario.