Israel airstrike targets mosque, school in Gaza; at least 24 killed

Cairo: At least 24 people were killed and 93 others wounded when Israeli airstrikes targeted a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday morning, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.

The strikes on the mosque and the school near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip came as the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the enclave approaches its first anniversary. In its own statement, the Israeli military said it conducted "precise strikes on Hamas terrorists" who were operating within command and control centres embedded in Ibn Rushd School and the Shuhada al-Aqsa Mosque in the area of Deir al Balah.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave's 2.3 million people, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.