At least 54 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in different parts of Gaza on Sunday, including two schools, according to health officials in the besieged enclave.
An airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis hit a school, killing at least 16 people including several children, according to Nasser Hospital where bodies were taken. There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military.
Footage verified by Sky News shows multiple ambulances at the scene of the attack as well as the top of a building ablaze.
In the north, an airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun and killed at least 15 people, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital where casualties were taken.
The dead included two parents and their daughter, and a father and his son, the hospital was quoted saying by the Associated Press.
The strike in Khan Younis is reported to have killed at least 16 people
People flee the scene in Khan Younis
In Gaza City, at least 17 people including six women and five children were killed in three airstrikes that hit houses sheltering displaced people, according to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital.
“We woke up to the strike. I woke up with the rubble on top of me,” said Yahia al Yazji as he grieved the loss of his wife, who he said was three months pregnant, and daughter in the attack.
“I found my wife with her head and skull visible, and my daughter’s intestines were gone.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” from the air and on the ground in the Beit Hanoun area, killing dozens of militants and capturing others.
An airstrike in central Gaza killed Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed al Louh. The same strike, which hit a civil emergency centre in the Nuseirat market area, also killed five others, medics and journalists said.
The Israeli military claimed Mr al Louh was a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, without providing evidence.
Read more:
Amnesty International accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza
Trump wants Gaza ceasefire deal by the time he takes power – Qatari PM
Israel’s 14-month war on Hamas in Gaza has killed nearly 45,000 people, Hamas-run local authorities have said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the military campaign on the besieged Palestinian enclave following the 7 October attack by Hamas last year which saw 1,200 people massacred in southern Israel and more than 250 taken hostage.
