Star Metro - Gaza rescuers: 20 dead in Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter

The intensified violence, after a nearly three-month blockade of humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip, has sharpened international condemnation of Israel.

World leaders meeting in Madrid at the weekend called for an end to the "inhumane" and "senseless" war, while humanitarian organisations said the trickle of resumed aid is not nearly enough to staunch the hunger and health crises.

In Gaza City, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that "at least 20 martyrs" were transported to hospital, most of them children, and 60 people were wounded in the "horrific occupation massacre at the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school" at dawn, where hundreds of people were sheltering, referring to Israel.

The Israeli military said it had "struck key terrorists who 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 that "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians".

The day before, Israeli strikes killed 22 people and wounded dozens more across the Palestinian territory, the agency said.

Israel has expanded its Gaza offensive, activating tens of thousands of reservists as it aims for "the defeat of Hamas".

US President Donald Trump, whose administration has strongly backed Israel in its campaign, on Sunday said he wanted to "see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible".

The same day, as Arab and European nations gathered to seek an end to the conflict, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called for an arms embargo on Israel.

He also called for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza "massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel", describing the territory as humanity's "open wound".

- 'Hunger, desperation' -

At the weekend, Gaza rescuers were struggling to retrieve bodies from the rubble after a series of Israeli strikes.

In one home in Jabalia, in the north, seven people were killed and several others stuck under debris, Bassal said.

"The civil defence does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the wounded and recover the martyrs," the spokesman said.

Two more people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant, were killed in an attack targeting tents sheltering displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, he said, adding that doctors were unable to save the unborn child.

Deadly strikes were also recorded around Deir el-Balah in the centre of the territory, Beit Lahia in the north and the main southern city of Khan Yunis.

The civil defence agency said on Saturday that an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports.

Israel has in recent days partially eased a blockade that was imposed on March 2, which exacerbated widespread shortages of food and medicine in Gaza.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that coordinates civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that "107 trucks belonging to the UN and the international community carrying humanitarian aid... were transferred" into Gaza on Sunday.

But critics charge that this is nowhere near enough, especially as many of the aid trucks end up being looted.

The World Food Programme has called on Israel "to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster", saying: "Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity."

- Aid controversy -

The head of a controversial US-backed NGO preparing to move aid into Gaza also announced his abrupt resignation on Sunday.

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) executive director Jake Wood said he felt compelled to leave after determining that the organisation could not fulfil its mission in a way that adhered to "humanitarian principles".

The GHF has vowed to distribute about 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.

But the United Nations and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, amid accusations it is working with Israel.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,939, mostly civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

Bouchard--SMC