At least 28 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school turned shelter in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, amid accusations Israel intends to forcibly expel the remaining population in a renewed ground campaign.
The bombing of Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya on Thursday killed 28, including doctors and several children, and injured dozens more, according to health officials, who warned the final toll was likely to be higher. Another 11 people were killed in two separate airstrikes in Gaza City, and it was unclear how many were killed in other strikes in central and southern Gaza.
The attack on the Jabaliya school also caused a fire. “There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing. This is a massacre,” said medic Medhat Abbas.
“Civilians and children are being killed, burned under fire.”
The Israeli military said the strike targeted militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operating from within the school, claiming dozens of fighters were present when the strike took place. In a statement, Hamas denied any militants were using the school as a base.
Thursday’s attacks came as Israel’s latest campaign in Jabaliya, a district of Gaza City, reaches its second week. An estimated 400,000 people are trapped by the fighting, with dwindling humanitarian supplies. Israel has nominally controlled Gaza City since the beginning of the year, but has repeatedly been forced to re-engage in areas under its control as Hamas has regrouped.
On Wednesday, after a warning from the US that Israel must allow more aid to reach Gaza or face a cut off in military support, Israel allowed 50 lorries carrying food, water and medical equipment to enter northern Gaza. Israel had previously not allowed any aid to enter the north since the start of the month, leading the UN World Food Programme to once again raise the alarm of imminent famine.
Jabaliya residents said on Thursday that several streets were blown up in bombings, by tank fire and controlled detonations, and that Jabaliya, together with the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, are now under a complete siege.
The entirety of northern Gaza is under Israeli evacuation orders. Among those who have remained in the north are disabled or elderly people and their families, who say it is too dangerous and difficult to move.
Israel has so far not allowed anyone from above what is now known as the Netzarim corridor bisecting the strip to return home; those clinging on in the north fear that if they leave, they will face the same fate.
“We have written our death notes, and we are not leaving Jabaliya,” one resident told Reuters via a chat app.
“The occupation [Israel] is punishing us for not leaving our houses in the early days of the war, and we are not going now either. They are blowing up houses, and roads, and are starving us but we die once and we don’t lose our pride,” the father of four said, refusing to give his name, fearing Israeli reprisal.
Earlier this week, the Israeli-Palestinian rights groups B’Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights called on the international community to prevent Israel from carrying out the “generals’ plan”, described as a “starve or surrender” strategy for Gaza City that could amount to war crimes. The IDF says it has not received such orders.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, warned Israel on Thursday that any “large-scale forcible transfer” of civilians out of conflict-wracked north Gaza could constitute a war crime if not done on “imperative military grounds”.
Reuters contributed to this report