At least 28 people, including children, have died in a wave of Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
A school housing displaced families was among the affected facilities, killing eight people, including four children, over the weekend, the agency said.
It comes as the UN appeals to Israel to stop attacks near a hospital in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said a Hamas command center was inside the Musa bin Nusair school compound in Gaza City and has not commented on reports of attacks. by the hospital.
“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.”
Gaza civil defense agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told the AFP news agency that the school had been transformed into a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
A displaced man who resided at the school, Abu, told BBC Arabic that the attack took place while he was sleeping.
“We were sleeping peacefully, then suddenly we woke up to the sound of a very powerful explosion,” he said.
Another man, Mahmoud, said he was sleeping in a tent in the school grounds at the time of the attack.
“Stones and shrapnel were flying, the walls of the school were falling on our heads,” he told BBC Arabic.
On Sunday, Pope Francis condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza for the second day in a row.
He expressed his pain thinking of “such cruelty, the machine-gunning of children, the bombing of schools and hospitals.”
Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya said its generators were hit and claimed the Israeli army was targeting the fuel tank.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, appealed to the IDF to stop attacks near the hospital.
Saturday evening’s reports of a “bombing near Kamal Adwan Hospital and an order to evacuate the hospital are deeply worrying”, he said in a statement posted on social media .
“We call for an immediate ceasefire near the hospital and the protection of patients and health workers.”
The hospital director also issued a statement saying Israeli forces were treating the hospital “as if we were a military installation.”
“Anyone leaving the hospital risks being targeted,” said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.
He added that moving the hospital’s operations would put patients at risk, and asked that healthcare personnel “be allowed to operate without the threat of evacuation.”
Israel has not commented on reports of an evacuation order.
The BBC has contacted the Israeli military for comment.
Palestinian groups involved in the fighting told the BBC that a ceasefire agreement is “closer than ever”.
More than 45,000 Palestinians were killed during the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
The war began when Hamas-led gunmen carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage.
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