Israel has killed at least 50 more Palestinians and wounded more than 120 in Gaza as its military has ordered new evacuations in the central and southern parts of the enclave.
Gaza's Civil Defense agency said Wednesday that at least four people were killed and 18 wounded in the latest Israeli attack on the Salah al-Din school, which houses displaced Palestinians in Gaza City.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP news agency that 10 of the injured were children.
A father told AFP that his son was killed in the attack while playing in the school yard. “We ran to see and saw my son dead,” he said without giving his name.
“What did this kid do to deserve this? He had no missiles, no planes, no tanks.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that the air force “carried out a precise strike against Hamas terrorists operating inside a command and control center” located on the school grounds.
“Hamas operatives used the compound as a hideout and base to plan and carry out attacks against [Israeli] troops and the State of Israel,” a statement said.
Israel has targeted more than 500 schools in its 10-month offensive on Gaza, claiming Hamas was using them as hideouts. But it has failed to provide sufficient evidence to back up its claim, while Hamas has denied the accusation.
In Bani Suheila, a town near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed seven Palestinians, two of them children and five women, in a tent camp for displaced people, medics said.
In Rafah, a Civil Defense team recovered the bodies of four more Palestinians. They were farmers working near Al-Mawasi and were killed by Israeli tanks, which opened fire on them without warning, Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum reported on Wednesday.
The Israeli military has killed at least 40,223 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. Most of those killed in Gaza are women and children, according to the United Nations human rights office.
«Have mercy on us, world»
Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Wednesday issued new evacuation orders for several neighborhoods in Deir el-Balah, the most densely populated area of the enclave, signaling an expansion of the army's ground operations from southern to central Gaza.
Israeli forces fired into the crowd, killing at least one person and wounding several others, medics and residents in the central Gaza city said.
Al Jazeera's Maram Humaid, reporting from Gaza, said “a wave of terror and panic has swept the area” as people rushed to leave following orders.
He said witnesses reported Israeli tanks near the al-Mazraa school area, southeast of Deir el-Balah.
“The tanks approached one of the schools and started shelling civilians. The quadcopters were also shooting at people,” said Dia Lafi, another Palestinian journalist.
“There is nowhere to go, there is no transportation for those trying to escape.”
As Mohammad Yasser loaded mattresses into a car outside his family's temporary shelter, he cried out in despair: “Have mercy on us, world! Have mercy! We don't want aid or food stamps. Just stop this war.
“The evacuation looks like a mass exodus. There is nowhere to go. Deir el-Balah is the last station. We will end up sitting on the streets,” Yasser told Al Jazeera.
“If it weren’t for my children, I would stay, even if it meant dying here. My daughter was born and raised in this war. We have suffered enough.”
The Gaza government's media office said more than 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced to so-called humanitarian zones.
The Israeli military now considers only 9 percent of the Gaza Strip to be “safe” and has carried out repeated attacks on these areas, which lack basic infrastructure, water and are overcrowded.
The UN says at least 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced at least once since the war began in October.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, denounced Wednesday's attack on the Gaza City school, saying “some were burned alive” in the “horrible attack on one of our UNRWA schools.”
“Is there any humanity left?” Lazzarini wrote on social media platform X. “Gaza is no longer a place for children. They are the first victim of this merciless war.
“We cannot allow the unbearable to become the new normal. Enough is enough. A ceasefire is long overdue.”
