Israel Says "Key Terrorists" Targeted After 20 Killed In Strikes At Gaza School

At least 44 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes on Gaza overnight, including one targeting a school sheltering displaced families, according to local authorities. Israel has intensified its military operations in the Palestinian enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas' military and governing capabilities and bring back the remaining hostages who were seized in October 2023.

Rescuers said at least 20 people--mostly children-- were killed and over 60 others wounded in an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) strike on a school in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City on Monday.

"At least 20 martyrs were transported (to hospital), the majority of them children, and more than 60 wounded in the horrific occupation (Israeli) massacre at the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School, which was sheltering hundreds of displaced people in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told news agency AFP. 

The day before, Israeli strikes killed 22 people and wounded dozens more across the Palestinian territory, according to AFP.

Israel Says 'Key Terrorists' Targeted

The Israeli military on Monday said that its forces targeted a Hamas control centre in the overnight strike on Sunday in Gaza, targeting a facility that was used to "plan and gather intelligence in order to execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops."

The military said "key terrorists" were in a Gaza school it targeted at dawn on Monday. It said that these terrorists "were operating within a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control center embedded in an area that previously served as the 'Faami Aljerjawi' School in the Gaza City area", adding "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians".

Israel's Operation In Gaza

Despite mounting international pressure that pushed Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel would control the whole of Gaza.

Israel has taken control of around 77 per cent of the enclave either through its ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that keep residents away from their homes, Gaza's media office said.

The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas Islamist militants attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its two million residents from their homes. The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.