Israel strikes market and school in Gaza, killing at least 20 Palestinians
Yet another day of killings was reported in Gaza, with more people killed – including 20 Palestinians – Israeli tanks shelled a crowded market and a school that was acting as a residence for the displaced persons.
On the following Tuesday, the Israeli forces launched a severe attack on a crowded market in Deir el-Balah, which is in the center of the Gaza Strip. The attack led to the death of at least eight Palestinians. An al-Jazeera correspondent on the scene disclosed this. He pointed out that more people might die as the situation unfolds in areas affected by the cyclone.
“This is near the market; the road is heavily busy, too busy to be safe,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary. She said that among the injured were many children because the attack happened a few hundred meters from al-Aqsa hospital, where most of the wounded were taken.
At least 10 Palestinians, including children, are still in the ICU, said Khoudary, including children found in the corridors of the hospital with bloodstains on their bodies as they waited to be attended to. Most of them were in severe condition, exacerbating concerns regarding total fatalities.
In West Gaza, another Israel air raid struck a school just hours before the market attacked, killing 12 people and many others injured. Rescue teams were scrambling to look for the survivors as at least forty students were believed to have been buried under the debris after the school structure was brought down.
“Our crews pulled out 12 martyrs from the Mustafa Hafiz school that the Israeli occupation bombed west of Gaza City,” civil defense agency spokesman Mahmoud Basal said on Tuesday. Several sources reported that about 700 Palestinian refugees were living in the school at the time of the attack.
The injured from the school attack were rushed to al-Alhi Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The Israeli military said that it had attacked a facility used by Palestinian fighters within the school, a common explanation that Israel has offered for its assaults on civilian infrastructure, which no proof has backed.
Israel has gone ahead to attack civilian structures such as schools, health facilities, and churches despite the condemnation across the globe and the United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire. Over 40 years, 173 Palestinians were killed in the ongoing Israeli attack on Gaza; 92,857 others have been injured, local health officials reported on October 7.
This is the chronology of events as the fighting in Gaza continues and the diplomates get to work. Yesterday, U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Egypt and Qatar – two hosts continuing talks on the ceasefire in Gaza. But Hamas has claimed that the United States has changed its positions on the ceasefire debate and is biased ‘blindly in favor of Israel.’
Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan dismissed the U.S. assertions that the group was pulling back from a deal as misleading. ’ He elaborated that Hamas is still dedicated to the ceasefire plan that was adopted by the U.S. and the U.N. in June, which entailed Israel’s complete pullout in stages and for a general ceasefire. However, despite what Hamdan mentioned, Israeli demands are a six-week cease-fire.
