Key events
AFP reports that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah says it has received 37 bodies from the Israeli strike on the Unrwa school in Nuseirat refugee camp.
Here are some more of the latest pictures sent over the newswires from the Unrwa school in Nuseirat refugee camp struck by Israel’s military. The precise death toll remains unclear although is at least dozens of people.
Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir al-Balah in Gaza for Al Jazeera, has told the network:
It is another tragic morning in the central area of Gaza, particularly in Nuseirat refugee camp, where an overnight attack targeted a UN-run school that was housing hundreds of displaced Palestinian families.
In addition, a residential house was completely destroyed. At least 39 Palestinians have been reported killed in those attacks. We’ve been talking to a number of families at the hospital. They say they did not receive any prior warning ahead of the attack.
Israel’s military has claimed that “Before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information.”
The Israeli government has banned Al Jazeera from operating in Israel, a decision upheld in an Israeli court yesterday.
On its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military claims to have thwarted an attempt to cross the border from Gaza by a group of what it described as “three terrorists”. It wrote:
IDF troops operating in the area of the security fence identified several suspects who approached the border from the Gaza Strip and moved toward Israel in an attempt to cross the security area in the area of Rafah.
The troops engaged the terrorists who opened fire at them. The troops then returned fire at the terrorists.
An IAF aircraft that monitored the terrorist cell struck the terrorists and eliminated two of them. Another terrorist was eliminated by means of tank fire shortly afterward.
We emphasise that the terrorists did not cross the fence built along the Gaza Strip. The incident is under review.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel’s military has reported that one soldier was killed in a drone attack in northern Israel yesterday. Nine others were wounded in the attack on Hurfeish, which is near Mount Meron and the UN-drawn blue line that separated Israel and Lebanon.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider crisis in the Middle East.
At least 30 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a UN school on Thursday in the central Gaza Strip, according to local health officials in Gaza. Israeli forces said the Unrwa school was a Hamas compound, containing militants involved in the 7 October attack on southern Israel. Israel’s military said that before the strike by Israeli fighter jets, the military took steps to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office, has rejected Israel’s claims.
The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people.
The attack comes as Israel announces a new military campaign in central Gaza, as it battles a group of fighters relying on hit-and-run insurgency tactics.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
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The US has warned against an “escalation” on the Israel-Lebanon border, saying conflict would only harm Israeli security. “We don’t want to see that escalation of the conflict which would just lead to further loss of life from both Israelis and the Lebanese people and would greatly harm Israel’s overall security and stability in the region,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. It comes after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened an “extremely powerful” response to attacks by Hezbollah during a visit on Wednesday to Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.
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Months of extreme hunger have already killed many Palestinians in Gaza and caused permanent damage to children through malnutrition, two new food security reports have found. The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.
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The leader of Hamas said the group would demand a permanent end to the war in Gaza and Israeli withdrawal as part of a ceasefire plan, dealing an apparent blow to a truce proposal touted last week by US president Joe Biden.
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Israel said there would be no halt to fighting during ceasefire talks and launched a new assault on a central section of the Gaza Strip near the last city yet to be stormed by its tanks.
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Violent clashes broke out in Jerusalem during the annual Jerusalem flag day march which commemorates the anniversary of Israel taking control and occupying East Jerusalem in 1967. At least two journalists were injured as right-wing Israeli youths marched chanting anti-Arab and anti-Islamic slogans. Israeli peace activists have been taking part in the “flower parade”, where they hand flowers to Palestinian residents as an alternative to the flag march.
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Israel is phasing out the use of a military-run detention camp for Palestinians captured during the Gaza war where rights groups alleged there has been abuse of inmates, justice officials said on Wednesday. In late May, Lorenzo Tondo and Quique Kierszenbaum reported for the Guardian that whistleblowers had described harrowing treatment of detainees at the camp. The claims included inmates regularly being kept shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded and forced to wear nappies, and reports of a man having his limb amputated as a result of injuries sustained from constant handcuffing