At least eight people have been killed in an Israeli attack on a school sheltering Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip as Israel sent several senior officials for talks on a possible ceasefire.
On Saturday, an Israeli attack struck Zainab al-Wazir school in the Jabalia al-Balad district of northern Gaza, killing eight civilians, including two women and two children, according to the Palestinian Civil Rescue Service.
“The Israelis targeted us without prior warning.” A mother rummaging through the rubble told Al Jazeera. “They attacked us with missiles. I don’t know where my children are. “I have no idea whether they are injured or dead.”
Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout described the scene at Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital, where dozens of wounded people were rescued, as “bloody” and “horrible”, as Israel continues its siege of northern Gaza. It was pointed out that there was a shortage of medical supplies in the situation. It lasted more than 80 days.
Late Saturday, Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported that four Palestinians were killed and several wounded in attacks in several locations across Gaza, including one on a house in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood. reported.
Israeli warplanes also bombed a tent sheltering a refugee family in Deir el-Balah, located in the center of the settlement, killing three people, Wafa reported.
Additional attacks reportedly killed one person near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and another in the southern town of Khan Younis.
The attack comes as Egypt, Qatar and the United States make new efforts to reach an agreement to stop fighting in the Gaza Strip and release remaining Israeli prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
‘Difficult difficulty’
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who visited Qatar earlier this week.
An Egyptian security source cited by news agency Reuters said Witkoff had reassured Egyptian and Qatari mediators that the United States would continue to work for a fair deal to end the war soon.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that after the meeting, Netanyahu dispatched a high-level delegation, including the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, to Qatar to advance the talks.
“There are a lot of moving parts here,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from the Jordanian capital Amman.
“Donald Trump said if we don’t get a ceasefire before he takes office, he’s going to try very aggressively to get one. But we must remember that there are difficult challenges on both sides,” she said.
“The Israelis say they will not end the war, and Hamas says they want a comprehensive ceasefire where the war ends and Israeli troops withdraw.
“And then there is the Israeli public, which is constantly protesting against Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government. “He says 15 months after this war started, he is neither able nor willing to negotiate,” she said.
Families of Israeli prisoners welcomed Netanyahu’s decision to send officials, and the headquarters of the Forum for Families of Hostages and Disappeared described it as a “historic opportunity.”
‘It’s impossible to survive’
As mediators prepare for more ceasefire talks, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reports that Palestinians under attack in the Gaza Strip are also fighting severe food shortages, and Israel is demanding the United Nations lift restrictions on supplies entering the Strip. He said he continues to ignore it.
“Every day we see children coming to communal kitchens with empty pots, and when we talk to families, they say they cannot feed their children even one proper meal a day,” said Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah.
“Palestinians in Gaza are dying not only from constant air strikes but also from malnutrition,” she said.
Amnesty Denmark representative Vibe Klarup said Israel was committing “genocide.”
“Saying that Israel is committing genocide is not an opinion, but a conclusion based on legitimate and thorough analysis,” she told the European Palestine Network conference in Copenhagen.
“Surviving in Gaza is becoming more and more impossible. “Our role as humans is to prevent genocide,” she added.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 46,537 people since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.
