30 killed as Israel hits Gaza schools amid failing cease-fire talks
A man inspects the damage at the al-Nassr school that houses displaced Palestinians, West of Gaza City, Palestine, Aug. 4, 2024. (AFP Photo)


At least 30 Palestinians were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit two schools in Gaza City on Sunday, Palestinian officials said.

In a separate incident, another Israeli airstrike hit a tent camp inside a hospital in central Gaza earlier the same day.

Gaza health officials said a total of at least 44 Palestinians were killed on Sunday, the day after a round of talks in Cairo ended without result.

Footage circulated on Palestinian media showed bodies scattered inside the yard of one of two blast-wrecked schools as residents rushed to carry casualties, including children, and loaded them into ambulance vehicles that took them to at least two nearby hospitals.

Gaza's Civil Emergency Service said dozens were wounded in addition to the fatalities in the schools of Hassan Salama and Al-Nasser, which housed Palestinian displaced families.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command embedded within the schools and that it took steps to reduce the risk to civilians there.

Israel claims Hamas regularly embeds in civilian institutions, using Gaza's population as human shields. Hamas denies this.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli strike inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound started a fire, and wounded at least 18 people as well as killed five, medical authorities said.

The Israeli military said it struck resistance members operating there and that secondary explosions were identified, indicating weapons were present in the area.

The hospital compound is in Deir al-Balah, an area crowded with thousands of people displaced by fighting in other parts of the enclave.

Elsewhere in Deir al-Balah, three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house. Separate Israeli strikes killed eight others inside their home in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza City and three inside a car.

Residents in areas southeast of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and to the north of Rafah, where there was heavy fighting last month, reported receiving evacuation orders from the Israeli military.

The Israeli army spokesman posted orders on X, asking residents of those districts to head toward the humanitarian zone, saying forces would soon act forcefully against militants waging attacks from those areas.