Israel attacks Khan Younis again amid international outrage over school strike

There are fears that the latest attacks in Gaza could affect ceasefire talks due to resume this week

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli strike on the Al-Taba'een school in the Daraj Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza. EPA

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Israel pressed ahead with another offensive in southern Gaza on Sunday amid international outrage over its bombing of a school on Saturday that killed scores of displaced Gazans who were sheltering there.

The Israeli military ordered thousands of people living in neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave early on Sunday, including areas that are part of the humanitarian zone it designated as a safe area for people affected by previous evacuation orders.

Two Palestinians were killed and several wounded in a strike on Sunday afternoon, while five others were wounded in morning strikes, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.

The evacuation orders issued by military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the areas being targeted had been used for launching rockets at Israel.

The latest offensive highlights the difficulty Israel has faced in keeping previously held areas free of enemy forces 10 months into its war against Hamas and allied Palestinian militant groups in Gaza.

Most of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once since Israel launched its military offensive in response to the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7. The army has issued repeated evacuation orders for different parts of the enclave since then, often giving only several minutes' warning before opening fire in recent months.

More than 75,000 Gazans have been displaced in south-west Gaza alone in recent days, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X on Sunday.

However, schools where many displaced civilians seek shelter have increasingly come under attack in recent weeks, with Israel accusing militants of using them as bases. In one of the deadliest attacks of the war, more than 100 people were killed and dozens more injured in an Israeli air strike on Al Tabaeen school in Gaza city on Saturday, Gaza authorities said.

Israel’s military said it hit a Hamas command centre in a mosque in its compound and disputed the death toll, saying it killed 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters “using three precise munitions, which, according to professional analysis, cannot cause the amount of damage that is being reported by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza”.

Civilians fleeing Khan Younis in Gaza. AFP

The strike drew widespread international condemnation, with Algeria calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday to discuss it.

The attack came days ahead of a proposed resumption of negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, with pressure mounting on Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement.

Egypt accused Israel of deliberately hindering the ceasefire effort, saying “the continued commission of these large-scale crimes, and the deliberate killing of these huge numbers of unarmed civilians, whenever the efforts of mediators intensified to try to reach a formula for a ceasefire in the strip, is conclusive evidence of the absence of political will on the part of the Israeli side to end this fierce war”.

The UAE “denounced in the strongest terms” Israel's attack on the school and reaffirmed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to prevent further loss of life, Afra Al Hameli, director of strategic communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on X.

Jordan condemned what it said was Israel's “flagrant violation of the rules of international law and an insistence on the systematic targeting of civilians and centres for sheltering displaced persons”.

Saturday's attack, amid a diplomatic push to renew talks for a ceasefire, is an indication of the Israeli government's endeavours to “obstruct and thwart these efforts”, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said.

Qatar, which has been acting as mediator between Israel and Hamas along with Egypt and the US, said it was renewing its call for independent UN investigators to look into Israel's “repeated targeting of schools and displacement shelters”.

Turkey also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting “to sabotage ceasefire negotiations”.

EU foreign affairs minister Josep Borrell said he was “horrified” by the images emerging from the aftermath of the Israeli attack.

“At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There's no justification for these massacres”, he wrote on X.

US Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the deaths at the school, saying that “far too many” civilians have been killed in the war, although she added that Israel has a right to “go after Hamas”.

“We need a hostage deal, and we need a ceasefire. The deal needs to get done, and it needs to get done now,” she added.

The months-long peace effort is set to resume on August 15, most probably in the Qatari capital Doha, although there is little hope of a breakthrough, sources close to the negotiations told The National.

The renewed push for a ceasefire, which received widespread support in the region and from the US and European Union, came after the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week and the appointment of Yahya Sinwar, the group's leader in Gaza, as his successor.

Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the assassination and vowed to retaliate, raising fears of a regional war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is eliminated, faces pressure to reach a deal to free the 115 hostages still held by Hamas after being seized on October 7. Protesters took to the streets on Saturday evening calling on the government to come to an agreement.

A significant section of Israeli society wants the government to prioritise getting a hostage deal. AFP

However, hardline politicians, many of whom have powerful positions in the government, criticised the calls, saying instead that Israel must pursue a full-throttled campaign in the strip.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Sunday that a deal would be a surrender to Hamas. He also called for cutting off humanitarian aid to the strip.

The anger on both sides highlighted once again how the plight of the hostages has polarised sections of Israeli society, even as the country braces for an attack from its regional enemies and stands on the brink of a regional war.