Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops that Hamas was being worn down but pursuit of the group will “continue for years”.
At least 14 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in an Israeli strike that hit the Abu Ariban School in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The school, operated by the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, was being used as a shelter for people displaced as the war across Gaza continues.
“The one who goes to school because he wants to hide from death. He is not going to resist. We do not want anything. We only want to be safe, but now neither the school nor the home nor any place is safe. They are targeting everything,” said Um Fadi Al-Zeer, one of the displaced woman based at the school.
Israel’s military said in a statement that it had struck “terrorists who were reportedly operating in the area and based in the UNRWA school.
It comes just a day after at least 90 people were killed and 300 others wounded in a massive Israeli airstrike strike in southern Gaza.
That strike was one of the deadliest in the nine-month war sparked by Hamas’ October 7 incursion into southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw more than 200 taken hostage.
Meanwhile, in northern Israel, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met with troops at the Nevatim airbase.
He praised service personnel for their efforts in wearing down Hamas but warned that the pursuit of the group would “continue for years”.
“Hamas is being worn down every day, paying prices and its ability to re-strengthen is very low. We closed in at Rafah, we are hitting his command posts, the weapons warehouses, the communication rooms, everywhere where weapons is produced. The result is that he has no ability to arm himself, no ability to organize, no ability to care for the wounded,” he said.
In northern Gaza, charities have set up soup kitchens in a bid to keep the population there fed as aid continues to come into the enclave at a trickle and supplies dwindle.
Over 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced by the fighting, with many people forced to relocate again and again.
Many are now living in squalid, makeshift tent camps with limited access to food, clean water and sanitation products.
International experts say hundreds of thousands of people across Gaza are on the brink of famine.
