Israel-Gaza war: Dozens killed in Israeli strikes, Gaza officials say

“Hamas systematically violates international law,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on social media, adding that Israel’s response would be to “act with force and determination against terrorist organizations.”

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency, told the AFP news agency that the school had been converted into a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.

Abu, one of the IDPs who stayed at the school, told BBC Arabic that the attack happened while he was sleeping.

“We were sleeping peacefully, then suddenly we woke up to the sound of a loud explosion.

Another person, Mahmoud, said that he was sleeping in a tent in the school yard during the attack.

“Stones and shrapnel were flying, the walls of the school fell on our heads,” he told BBC Arabic.

On Sunday, Pope Francis condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza for the second day in a row.

He said that he suffered from “such cruelty, shooting of children with machine guns, bombing of schools and hospitals”.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Advan Hospital, said his generators had been hit and claimed the Israeli army had targeted a fuel tank.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, asked the Israeli army to stop the attacks near the hospital.

“The reports of shelling near Kamal Advan Hospital and the order to evacuate the hospital are deeply disturbing,” he said in a statement on social media.

“We call for an immediate ceasefire near the hospital and to protect patients and medical staff.”

The hospital’s director also released a statement saying Israeli forces were treating the hospital “as if we were a military facility.”

“Anyone who goes outside the hospital is at risk of being targeted,” said Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.

He added that moving the hospital’s operations would put patients at risk and called for health workers to be “allowed to operate without the threat of evacuation.”

Israel has not commented on the news about the evacuation order.

The BBC has approached the IDF for comment.

This was reported to the BBC by Palestinian groups participating in the fighting ceasefire agreement ‘closer than ever’.

more than 45 thousand Palestinians were killed According to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, during the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas.

The war began when Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.