An Israeli airstrike on a municipal building in the Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah killed at least 10 people on Saturday, including the city’s mayor, according to a report by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
According to the Wafa report, dozens of displaced people took shelter in the building.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said shortly afterwards that the aim of the attack was to kill the city’s mayor, who according to the IDF had also been active as a cadre in the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The IDF said he had supported Hamas’ combat operations, but gave no further details about the allegations.
Further Israeli attacks in Gaza
Other Israeli attacks elsewhere in the Gaza Strip also killed several other people on Saturday, including at least seven people in an attack on the former Al-Majida Wasila school building in Gaza City, Wafa said.
The news agency said the building was also used to house people displaced by the conflict.
The IDF said it was investigating the report.
However, the IDF also acknowledged that they had attacked another school complex near Gaza City on Saturday, which was reportedly used as a Hamas command post.
The Israeli Air Force “carried out a precise strike against Hamas terrorists,” the IDF said in a message on its Telegram channel. It said the “terrorists” planned to attack Israel and noted that the group was “embedded in a complex that previously served as the ‘Yaffa’ school in Gaza City.”
Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked former school buildings during their campaign in Gaza, accusing the Palestinian extremist group Hamas of setting up command centers in such buildings.
The IDF’s claims could not be independently verified.
The IDF claimed that the military had taken measures to minimize risks to civilians, but provided no information on casualties. Wafa reported that two people were killed and several others injured.
Dozens of deaths in the past 24 hours
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, a total of 55 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks within 24 hours.
Since the start of the war more than fourteen months ago, more than 44,900 people have been killed in Gaza. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, although many of the reported deaths are women and children. The victim reports cannot be independently verified at this time.
Israel began launching intense attacks in the Gaza Strip in response to the October 7, 2023 unprecedented attacks on Israel led by Hamas. On October 7, attackers from Hamas and other groups killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 hostages.
The IDF also said on Saturday that the Israeli Air Force had attacked weapons depots and individuals allegedly involved in a Hamas rocket attack on southern Israel launched from Gaza on Friday evening.
An “active international aid warehouse” is located about 50 meters from the rocket launch site Israel targeted on Saturday, the IDF wrote on X.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
PA takes action against Hamas in the West Bank
Meanwhile, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces moved against the Hamas movement and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Jenin in an operation that began on Saturday morning and continued throughout the day.
The PIJ reported that one of its commanders had been killed. There was no confirmation from the PA.
The operation in the northern West Bank city was aimed at ridding Jenin of “lawless elements,” a spokesperson told Wafa. PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa was expected to visit.
Observers believe the PA fears an armed uprising in the West Bank that could remove the group from power, as happened in the Gaza Strip in 2007 after Hamas won parliamentary elections last year.
Since then, the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has retained only limited authority over the occupied West Bank, with Israeli security forces repeatedly mounting their own operations.
At the beginning of the week, PA security forces were also active in Jenin against Hamas and PIJ, both of which accuse the PA of collaborating with Israel.
Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks mourn as they receive the dead bodies from the mortuary of Al-Aqsa Hospital for burial in Dair al Balah. Ali Hamad/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
