Harris condemns Israeli strike on Gaza school ‘too many civilians have died’ – latest

Thousands had fled the city on Thursday, carrying essentials like small gas cylinders, mattresses, tents, backpacks and blankets.

Um Raed Abu Elyan told Reuters she and her family were “running from the fire, we are running with our children from fear”.

Asked where would she go she replied: “God knows, we are walking now. They said to go to humanitarian areas, but there is no safe place here in Gaza. It is all destroyed and damaged.”

Australia’s foreign minister has joined the voices condemning Israel’s latest attack on a school in Gaza.

Senator Penny Wong, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, posted on social media platform X on Sunday: “Innocent Palestinians cannot continue to pay the price of defeating Hamas”.

Her calls came as reports surfaced of an Israeli strike on a school, where civilians were sheltering, in Gaza City.

Vice president Harris, told protesters: “I have been clear: now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done,” she said to applause. “Now is the time. And the president and I are working around the clock every day to get that ceasefire deal done and bring the hostages home. So, I respect your voices, but we are here to now talk about this race in 2024.”

The strike, which came just days ahead of renewed US and Qatar-backed ceasefire talks, was widely condemned, with the White House saying it was “deeply concerned” about the bombings, adding “far too many civilians continue to be killed and wounded in the Gaza war”.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on a social media post on Saturday morning: “Another day of horror in Gaza, another school hit with reports of dozens of Palestinians killed among them women, children and older people,” he said, adding that parties to the conflict must not use schools and other civilian facilities for military or fighting purposes and must, at all times, protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.

“It’s time for these horrors unfolding under our watch to end,” he said. “We cannot let the unbearable become a new norm. The more recurrent, the more we lose our collective humanity.”

According to the UN Human Rights office, this is the 21st strike on a Gazan school, each serving as a shelter, since 4 July.

The Israeli military has ordered mass evacuations of southern Gaza after Hamas claimed an airstrike on a school in the north left up to 100 Palestinians dead.

The order was given for Khan Younis, including part of an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone from which the military said rockets had been fired.

The city suffered widespread destruction during an air and ground offensive earlier this year. Tens of thousands fled again last week after an earlier evacuation order.

Hamas has released a statement condemning Israel’s killing of more than 100 Palestinians in a school in Gaza City.

The group has accused Israel of carrying out an “extermination campaign” on al-Tabin school.

In a statement, the militant group said: “The massacre perpetrated in the Gaza Strip by the hands of the Neo-Nazis in the center of Gaza City constitutes a horrific crime and represents a grave escalation in the unprecedented series of crimes and massacres in the history of wars.

In response to Israel’s claims that the school was being used as a Hamas command centre, the group said that these justifications are false and “excuses to target civilians, schools, hospitals, and refugee tents, all of which are false pretexts and exposed lies to justify its crimes”.

The statement added: “We call on our Arab and Islamic countries and the international community to fulfill their responsibilities and take urgent action to stop these massacres and halt the escalating Zionist aggression against our people and defenseless citizens.”

Israel has claimed the targeted school, which was turned into a shelter, was as an “active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility”.

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.

Britain is deeply concerned by Israel’s decision to revoke the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian diplomats dealing with the Palestinian Authority, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.

“We are deeply concerned by Israel’s decision to revoke the diplomatic status of 8 Norwegian diplomats dealing with the Palestinian Authority. Norway has long played a unique and valued role in supporting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We urge Israel to reconsider,” the FCDO spokesperson said in a statement yesterday.

This comes just a day after Israel revoked the accreditation of the eight Norwegian diplomats.