Dozens of Palestinians killed as Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza

At least 14 people were killed in a strike on a UN school sheltering displaced in Nuseirat camp

Houses destroyed by Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. EPA

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Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed dozens of Palestinians across the enclave on Wednesday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

At least 14 people, most of them children and women, were killed in a strike on a UN school sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, medical sources said. Several others were injured in the attack that hit Al Jaouni school, according to Wafa.

The Hamas government media office said about 5,000 displaced people were sheltering at the school, which used to be run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, when it was hit on Wednesday.

The Israeli military claimed it had conducted a “precise strike” on a Hamas command and control centre inside the compound.

Israel has regularly bombed schools, claiming the buildings are being used by Hamas militants. It blames Hamas for civilian casualties from its strikes, saying fighters base themselves and operate among civilians.

More than 90 per cent of Gaza’s school buildings have been severely or partially damaged in strikes and more than half the schools housing displaced people have been hit, according to a survey in July by the Education Cluster, a collection of aid groups led by Unicef and Save the Children.

In July, 16 people were killed by an Israeli attack on the same school. The following month, Al Tabaeen school in Gaza city was bombed, killing at least 100 displaced people.

Also in Nuseirat, four people were killed and 11 wounded in an attack on a house.

Thirteen people were also killed in a strike on a house in Khan Younis, with several wounded taken to the European Hospital, while Apache helicopters reportedly fired at family homes across the southern city.

Nearby, a fisherman was killed off the coast of Al Mawasi, an Israeli army designated safe zone where at least 40 people were killed in a Tuesday morning air strike and rescuers had to dig through nine-metre craters blasted into the sandy tent encampment.

Nine people were killed at Jabalia refugee camp, including three women and two children, Wafa reported.

Attacks were also reported in Gaza city and Rafah, with “heavy fire” reported in Gaza city's Al Sabra and Al Zeitoun neighbourhoods.

At least four were killed and 15 injured when Israeli planes struck a house in Al Mawasi, Wafa reported.

The continuing strikes come as UN teams in northern Gaza are finishing a polio vaccination campaign for an estimated 640,000 children aged under 10 across the enclave.

While “pauses” in fighting have been implemented since the campaign began on September 1, they only apply to specific areas hosting medical centres used by the vaccination teams.

UN teams involved in the campaign have also been detained and fired at by Israeli troops, prompting anger from UN officials. They are scheduled to administer a second dose of the vaccine to children after about four weeks.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have now been confirmed killed across Gaza since the war began almost a year ago. Another 94,925 people were wounded, and about 10,000 are missing, according to the latest figures from the enclave's health ministry.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Wednesday that an army helicopter had crashed while landing in Rafah overnight, killing two soldiers and injuring seven.

The army said the helicopter was on a mission to evacuate an injured soldier to a hospital for medical treatment.

“An initial inquiry … indicates that the crash was not caused by enemy fire. The cause of the crash is still under investigation,” it said.

The latest deaths bring the Israeli military's losses in the Gaza war to 344.

Military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that Israel had defeated the last Hamas battalion in Rafah.

West Bank violence

Five people were killed on Wednesday morning in an air strike on the occupied West Bank city of Tubas.

The strike hit a group of people near the city's Al Tawhid mosque, Wafa reported, with Israeli soldiers preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded.

A “large-scale” attack was reported on the city overnight as soldiers imposed a curfew on the area, closed roads into the city, and helicopters and reconnaissance planes flew overhead.

Troops also stormed the Tubas Turkish Governmental Hospital and began inspecting ambulances, Wafa added.

A major raid was also carried out in the Tulkarm area, the site of a recent nine-day army operation which displaced residents and destroyed large swathes of the city and its refugee camp.

Hospitals in the city were also raided on Wednesday, according to Wafa.

About 40 people were killed in the recent raids on Tulkarm and Jenin, a West Bank city that was regularly raided by the Israeli army even before the Gaza war began.

While both cities are home to Palestinian militant factions, including members of Hamas, civilians are also often killed in the raids.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, with Israeli troops conducting almost daily raids, killing hundreds, arresting thousands and regularly engaging in shoot-outs with Palestinian militants.