More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
In a statement, the IDF described its strike as targeting “terrorists operating a Hamas command and control center embedded inside the Khadija School in central Gaza,” and said that precautions were taken to “mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of appropriate munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.”
The force has issued similar statements after other strikes on schools packed with displaced civilians. Military experts caution that precision munitions still have the capacity to kill large numbers of people when they are used in densely populated areas.
Yazan Ahmed, 33, whose tent is near the school, told The Washington Post that the school was targeted with what appeared to be four missiles at around noon local time. He said he went to help rescue people from the school, and “the scene cannot be described. The limbs were torn everywhere. They were all women and children whose bodies were torn apart.”
His description was echoed by other eyewitnesses. “There were victims everywhere,” said Fayez al-Toum, 21, who said he had been standing on the roof of a school building across the road when the attack began.
Most of Gaza’s roughly 2.2 million population has been displaced by the conflict, as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants has shunted much of the civilian population from north to south, and now back toward the enclave’s center.
The United Nations said this week that more than 190,000 Palestinians had been displaced from Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, to the south, in just four days, as the Israeli army issued evacuation orders ahead of military operations there. On Saturday, the military extended those instructions to southern neighborhoods of Khan Younis.
“Due to significant terrorist activity and rocket fire toward the State of Israel from the southern area of Khan Younis, remaining in this area has become dangerous,” the Israel Defense Forces said on X, warning that it was “about to forcefully operate” there and was adjusting the boundaries of an area that it has designated as a safe zone.
It was the second time in less than a week that Israel has ordered the evacuation of a former safe area. On Monday, the IDF ordered the evacuation of an eastern sector of the city of Khan Younis, including an area in the Mawasi neighborhood that was previously within the boundaries of a designated safe zone for displaced people. Israel said it was targeting Hamas militants who had been firing rockets from the area.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been sheltering in the safe zone area, having been displaced multiple times since the war began.
At a news briefing Friday, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres described Gaza’s humanitarian crisis as a “disaster.” The displaced were now being told to move, he said, “in search of a safety that doesn’t exist.”
Here’s what else to know
The Israel Defense Forces said one of its navy ships intercepted a drone flying close to the offshore Karish gas field. The Saturday statement noted that a drone flew in from Lebanese territory, but added that it was not immediately clear whether the drone was for reconnaissance purposes or equipped with explosives. Hezbollah, which has not commented on the claims, has previously threatened to hit Israeli oil platforms in the event of an all-out war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Friday with former president Donald Trump, the latest stop on a whirlwind trip for the Israeli leader, who addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday and met with President Biden and Vice President Harris on Thursday. Trump has been openly critical of Netanyahu’s management of the war in Gaza, but both men downplayed past antagonisms Friday, with Trump saying “we’ve always had a very good relationship.”
At least 39,258 people have been killed and 90,589 injured in Gaza since the war started, the Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 328 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operations in Gaza.
Alon Rom contributed to this report.
