Closing summary
Israel expanded evacuation orders in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinian residents and displaced families to leave in the dark as explosions from tank shelling reverberated around them. The Israeli military said it was attacking militants from the Hamas group - which administered Gaza before the war - who were using those areas to stage attacks and fire rockets.
An Israeli was killed and another wounded on Sunday by Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on a main road in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s ambulance service and military said. The military said it was pursuing the suspected assailants, blocking routes and conducting searches.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards are holding a military drill in the western parts of the country that will continue until Tuesday, Iran’s official news agency announced on Sunday. Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel after Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s killing on 31 July in Tehran.
The drills, which started on Friday, are ongoing in the western province of Kermanshah close to the border with Iraq to “enhance combat readiness and vigilance,” an armed forces official told IRNA. Cited by Iranian media, Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi said on Friday that the Iranian supreme leader’s orders regarding the harsh punishment of Israel and revenge for Haniyeh are clear and will be implemented in the “best possible way”.
Vice-president of the United States Kamala Harris has said that “far too many civilians” have been killed following the Israeli strike on a school in Gaza yesterday. She said: “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed. I mean, Israel has a right to go after the terrorists that are Hamas. But as I have said many, many times, they also have, I believe, an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.”
The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has made a rare statement after at least 80 people were killed in Israeli missile strikes on a school compound in Gaza City. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, urged the US – Israel’s most important diplomatic ally and weapons supplier – to “put an end to the blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly”.
An airstrike on a vehicle in eastern Syria near the porous border with Iraq killed at least five fighters from pro-Iran units, two security sources in the region told Reuters. One of the sources said the strike was carried out by a drone, but could not specify which military the drone belonged to. The second source said it targeted fighters as they changed shifts at a checkpoint, Reuters reported.
Hamas denounced it as a “dangerous escalation”, while the Palestinian group’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah called it a “horrific massacre”. Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also condemned the strike, which came as mediators were pushing to resume ceasefire talks. Reuters reports that senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the strike should serve as a turning point in their efforts.
The death toll from the Israeli air strike on the Gaza City school has risen to 80, Palestinian health authorities said. The Israeli military acknowledged the strike on the Tabeen school on Saturday morning, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school. Hamas denied having a base at the school. Fadel Naeem, director of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, said the facility received the bodies of 80 people killed in the strike.
Around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating from the Gaza City school that was struck by the Israeli air force on Saturday, an Israeli military spokesperson said. “The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” lieutenant colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.
The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell has said there is “no justification” for the attack on the school in Gaza. He posted on X: “Horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike, w/ reportedly dozens of Palestinian victims. At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres We are dismayed by the terrible overall death toll.” The White House said it was “deeply concerned” about the Gaza school compound strike and asked Israeli officials for further details.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force targeted a command and control centre where Hamas fighters were hiding. The military said it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians, “including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information”. It did not immediately comment on the casualty reports from Gaza, Reuters reported.
According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 schools in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged in the war as of July 6. In June, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. Israel has blamed the civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the group endangers noncombatants by using schools and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations and attacks.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Israel-Gaza war blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Early on Saturday morning, Louay Nasser decided to perform the dawn prayer in the classroom he and his family are living in at Tabeen school in Gaza City, rather than go across the courtyard to the mosque. That decision may have saved his life.
As soon as he stood up to start praying, there was what he described as a “bright red light” and the sound of a strong explosion. The 30-year-old ran outside to see what had happened and froze in shock at the scene before him.
“There were pieces of men, women and children lying in front of me … heads separated from bodies, hands and legs all over,” Nasser said. “It was very difficult, but the worst was the man who was on fire, running and screaming. We ran over to him and put out the fire. He had burns all over his body to a massive degree.”
At least 80 people were killed in three Israeli missile strikes on the school, where about 6,000 displaced people were sheltering, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The attack is one of the single deadliest during more than 10 months of war between the Palestinian militant group and Israel, following Hamas’ massacre of about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, in southern Israel and its taking of 251 hostages into Gaza.
• This post was amended on 13 August 2024. Not all of the 1,200 people killed in southern Israel were civilians as stated in an earlier version.
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