Israeli forces launched more deadly strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, according to medical sources and the military, which said it targeted Hamas militants operating from inside a UN agency building.
The Israeli army also said it was reviewing an attack on Tuesday in which hospital sources said at least 29 people were killed in a nearby school in the southern Khan Yunis area — the fourth attack on a school building in four days.
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Early on Wednesday, four people were killed and one critically wounded in the bombing of a house in the central town of Nuseirat, a hospital source told AFP.
And 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 stepped up 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.
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The heightened military strikes come as Israeli officials start talks in Qatar on Wednesday on reaching a truce in the war raging since the October 7 Hamas attacks.
The Israeli military said that one overnight attack in Gaza City targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets operating from inside the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinians UNRWA.
The UN agency has not had control of the building since October. Israeli forces said in February they had found a Hamas tunnel underneath the headquarters.
The military said the militants were “operating inside UNRWA’s headquarters in the area and using it as a base to conduct attacks on IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) troops in the central Gaza Strip”.
It said that militants had been “eliminated” and “large amounts of weapons” found.
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, brought new condemnation from Hamas over the Israeli military tactics.
The Hamas government said a “majority” of the dead were women and children.
The Israeli military said the air force had “struck a terrorist from Hamas’ military wing who took part, among other terrorist activities, in the October 7 brutal massacre” in southern Israel.
It was the fourth time in four days that Gaza school buildings sheltering the displaced had been hit.
The military said it was “looking into the 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.”
The October 7 attack that started the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures released Tuesday by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.