Gaza: Israeli strike on camp next to school kills 25

At least 29 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a camp for displaced people outside a school in southern Gaza, hospital officials say.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said the strike had hit next to the gate of al-Awda school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of the city of Khan Younis, and put the initial death toll at 25.

One video showed more than a dozen dead and seriously wounded people, including several children, on the floor of a local hospital.

The Israeli military said it had used “precise munition” to target a “terrorist from Hamas’ military wing” who, it said, had taken part in the 7 October attack on Israel.

It said it was “looking into the reports that civilians were harmed” “adjacent” to al-Awda school.

The incident comes a week after the Israeli military ordered civilians to evacuate Abasan al-Kabira and other areas of eastern Khan Younis, prompting tens of thousands to flee.

One source at the Nasser hospital, where the injured from Abasan al-Kabira were taken, said they expected the number of dead to increase.

Al-Awda school houses displaced people from the eastern villages of Khan Younis.

The attack resulted in widespread destruction and the deaths of women and children. Body parts were scattered across the site and many people staying in tents outside the school were also injured.

This is the fourth attack on or near to schools sheltering displaced people in the past four days.

The Israeli military said it had carried out the first three strikes because Hamas politicians, police officers and fighters were using them as bases:

• On Saturday, 16 people were killed in a strike on a UN-run school in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, which was home to about 2,000 displaced people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry

• On Sunday a strike on a church-run school in Gaza City killed a senior Hamas government official and three other people, local sources said

• On Monday night, several people were reportedly wounded in a strike on another UN-run school in Nuseirat.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy the Hamas group in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 38,240 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.