Israeli forces intensified airstrikes across Gaza on Wednesday, targeting what they claimed were Hamas members allegedly operating from within a U.N. agency building.
The Israeli army announced a review of Tuesday’s attack, where hospital reports indicated at least 29 casualties in a school in southern Khan Yunis, marking the fourth such incident in four days.
In the early hours of Wednesday, airstrikes on a house in Nuseirat resulted in four fatalities and one critically injured, according to a hospital source cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Two people were killed and six injured in another strike on a home in Bani Suhaila, near Khan Yunis, according to another hospital source.
Israel has escalated air and ground attacks in Gaza City and southern Gaza since issuing evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people in the war-stricken Palestinian territory.
The heightened military strikes come as Israeli officials begin talks in Qatar on Wednesday to reach a truce in the war that has been raging since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion.
The Israeli military claimed that one overnight attack in Gaza City targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets allegedly operating from inside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The UNRWA has not controlled the building since October.
UNRWA had no immediate comment on the attack but has said it has “no way to verify” claims that its facilities are being used by Hamas and its allies.
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s deadly strike near the Al-Awda school in Abasan, near Khan Yunis, drew new condemnation from Hamas over Israeli’s targeting of schools.
The Hamas government said a “majority” of the dead were women and children.
It was the fourth time in four days that Israel struck Gazan school buildings housing displaced persons.
The Israeli military said it was “looking into reports that civilians were harmed adjacent to the Al Awda school,” which it acknowledged was “near the location of the strike. The incident is under review.”
Israel’s genocidal military offensive since Oct. 7 has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to figures released Tuesday by the territory’s Health Ministry. Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people.
