Despite a new ceasefire proposal from Arab intermediaries, as Israeli war with Hamas on besieged Palestinian territory is ongoing, the Strip civil defense agency said at least 25 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, including 11 people in school bombings.
The violent Israeli bombings crashed into several areas of Gaza on Wednesday, killing 11 people at a school protecting displaced people in Gaza’s Altafa district. The strike ignited a major fire that claimed most of the victims, said Mahmoud Bassar, a spokesman for civil defense.
Al Jazeera and Palestinian media from Qatar Network broadcast footage of several bodies wrapped in white shrouds at the morgue at Alsifa Hospital, crying the woman’s body.
“We were asleep, and suddenly something exploded, and we found the whole school was on fire, and tents were burning everywhere.
“People were screaming, men were carrying people. [people]burnt children, and walked saying: “Dear God, dear God, we have no one but you.” What can you say? Dear God, just,” she said.
Unusually, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) did not comment on the school’s attacks. Israeli officials say Hamas and Allied fact fighters are hiding behind civilian infrastructure, claiming Palestinian extremist groups are denial.
Israel has updated its air and ground campaign since the two-month ceasefire and hostage and prisoner swap collapsed in mid-March. Since then, according to the United Nations, when Israel robbed territory for what is known as the Security Buffer Zone, about 2,000 people have been killed, and another 420,000 have been forced to leave their homes and shelters.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 killed 1,200 people and over 51,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s retaliatory attack, which saw 250 more prisoners. 59 hostages remain in Gaza.
Israel also imposed a total blockade on the strip two weeks ago, unilaterally resuming combat. Food, water, fuel and medicine are currently running very low, and is the primary aid agency for Gaza to declare that the already devastating humanitarian crisis is worse than ever before.
On Wednesday, the British, French and German foreign ministers urged Israel to stop the aid blockade to Gaza, warning of “acute risks of hunger, epidemic disease and death.”
“Humanitarian aid should not be used as a political tool, nor should we be able to cut Palestine’s territory or undergo demographic changes,” the minister said. The joint statement – unusually strong criticism from some of Israel’s closest allies – came weeks after similar calls from the UN, the EU and Arab countries.
The efforts by Qatar-Egypt intermediaries to resume talks aimed at a ceasefire are aimed at ending the war. Reports of new plans appeared on Wednesday, including a five- to seven-year truce, including the release of the remaining hostages of Israelis seized in October 2023.
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A Hamas delegation traveled to Cairo, Egypt’s capital, Cairo late Tuesday to discuss the proposal. Israel has not responded to an invitation to another round of indirect negotiations.
While neither side has shown any indication they are willing to approach fundamental issues such as Hamas disarmament or Israeli withdrawal, mediators are believed to be under pressure from Washington to show progress before Donald Trump visits the Middle East next month.
President Mahmoud Abbas, a West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), made a rare intervention in the conflict on Wednesday, where Hamas called for Israel to be released hostages, saying their prisoners had offered Israel “excuses” to attack Gaza.
Basem Naim, a senior Hamas employee, calls Abbas’s statement “inhumous.” The secular Fatah parties of Hamas and Abbas, who ruled semi-autonomous Palestinian authority, fought a brief civil war in 2007, which took control of Gaza.
