An Israeli airstrike hit a school in Gaza, killing at least 30 people

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes hit a school and a hospital in central Gaza on Saturday as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet with international mediators to discuss a proposed ceasefire.

At least 30 people sheltering at a girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah were taken to Al Aqsa Hospital and pronounced dead after a strike the Israeli military said targeted a Hamas command and control center used for storing weapons and planning attacks.

Gaza’s Health Ministry announced that 11 people were killed in other strikes on Saturday.

THIS IS A HATE NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis on Saturday, as the country’s negotiators prepare to meet with international mediators to to discuss a proposal. cease fire.

The evacuation order is in response to rocket fire that Israel said came from the area. The army said it planned an operation against Hamas militants in the city, including parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in an area where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge throughout the war.

The planned strike comes a day before officials from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel are due to meet in Italy to discuss ongoing hostage and ceasefire negotiations. CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad Director David Barnea and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel on Sunday, according to US and Egyptian officials who spoke under on the condition of anonymity, because they were not. authorized to discuss plans.

It is the second evacuation order issued in a week that has included hitting part of the humanitarian zone, an area of ​​60 square kilometers (about 20 square miles) covered with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have access limited to help. The United Nations and humanitarian groups say. Israel expanded the area in May to accommodate people fleeing Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had flocked.

According to Israeli estimates, some 1.8 million Palestinians are currently sheltering there after being repeatedly uprooted in search of safety during Israel’s punitive air and ground campaign. In November, the army said the area could still be hit and that it was “not a safe area, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, said it was increasingly difficult to know how many people would be affected by the evacuation order because those sheltering under it were constantly being displaced.

“Referring to the order as an evacuation order does not do justice to what it means,” said Juliette Touma, the agency’s director of communications. “These are forced displacement orders. What happens is that when people have these orders, they have very little time to move.”

Further north, Palestinians mourned the death of seven killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on Zawaida in central Gaza. Members of two families – the parents and their two children, as well as a mother and her two children – were wrapped in traditional Islamic shrouds as members of the community gathered to perform funeral rites. As the men lined up to pray before the bodies, weeping friends and neighbors came forward individually to pay their final respects.

Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah confirmed the toll, and Associated Press reporters saw the bodies.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that around 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have risen since then.

The war began with an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

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Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco.

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Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Wafaa Shurafa and Sam Metz, Associated Press