Israel’s attack on a humanitarian zone in the Golan Heights: Israeli troops, children, civilians, Palestinians, and Palestinians
TEL AVIV, Israel, and GAZA STRIP — A rocket hit a sports complex filled with children playing soccer in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights region Saturday afternoon, on the same day that an Israeli strike in Gaza devastated a school building and killed dozens of people.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,200 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Some 17,000 children in the territory are now being separated from their families, and it is likely that number has grown since February.
Many Palestinians were forced to leave the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza due to the Israeli military’s orders.
The strike left a trail of blood in the minutes that followed with pieces of human flesh visible on the stairs as people tried to flee.
Wounded children were carried away afterward on donkey carts, video captured by Baba showed, with bodies borne aloft by makeshift stretchers built from pieces of debris. Baba found several dead young children in hallways of nearby hospitals.
The school compound was used as a hiding place for assaults on Israeli units, according to the Israeli military. Numerous steps had been taken, the Israeli military said, to “mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”
Israel’s military ordered a new evacuation of part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis on Saturday. Israel said the rocket fire came from the area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the State of Israel ‘is not listening to Hezbollah’s denial of its involvement’
Later Saturday, the Israeli ambulance service said a rocket launched from southern Lebanon killed 11 children, with around 30 injured, several of those very seriously.
The Israeli military believes that the rocket was fired from a southern Lebanon village named Chebaa, and blamed Hezbollah for the deaths. The group, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, has denied responsibility.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said it was the deadliest single attack on an Israeli target since Oct. 7, the date of the Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the current war in Gaza.
The incident has prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was briefed on the situation while in Washington, D.C., to return to Israel from the U.S. earlier than planned. He will convene a cabinet meeting of his top political allies and security officials upon his return.
Netanyahu said in his office’s statement that the entire nation of Israel was in support of the families of the children and the Druze community.
Many analysts and regional leaders have expressed concerns about a military escalation between Hezbollah and the Israel military after months of battles along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Netanyahu warned the State of Israel not to let this pass in silence after Hezbollah categorically denied their involvement in the incident. We won’t overlook this.
The Lebanese parliamentary speaker said Hezbollah’s denial of its involvement confirmed its commitment to avoiding violence against civilians, and proved Lebanon was not responsible.
The targeting of civilians is a violation of international law and the Lebanese government condemned all attacks against civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets the U.S., Israel and Hamas on Sunday after the attack on a school used as a shelter
Associated Press journalists saw a dead toddler in an ambulance and bodies covered with blankets. There were classrooms in ruins and broken walls inside the school. People searched for victims in rubble that was strewn with pillows.
The US, Egypt, Italy, and Israel are planning to meet in Italy on Sunday to talk about cease-fire negotiations. CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel, according to officials from the U.S. and Egypt who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
According to officials from the U.S., Israel and Hamas agree on the basic framework of a three-phase deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the congress that he would press forward with the war until he achieved total victory.
Palestinian officials disapproved of the speech after the strike on the school. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that Netanyahu’s reception from supporters in the U.S. constituted a “green light” to continue Israel’s offensive.
He stated that only some condemnations and denunciations would force the occupation to stop its bloody aggression when it bombs a school.
The military said it planned an operation against Hamas militants in the city, including parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in an area where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge.
The health centers in Gaza were forced to stop providing care after the order to evacuate.
Source: At least 30 dead in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike hits a school used as a shelter
The Gazan area is not a safe zone for any civilians, but it is a safer place than any other in the Gaza, according to the Israeli military
According to Israeli estimates, about 1.8 million Palestinians shelter in the zone after being uprooted multiple times during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign. The area is not a safe zone but is a safer place than any other in Gaza, the military said in November.
“These are forced displacement orders,” said Juliette Touma, the agency’s director of communications. People have very little time to move when they have these orders.
Seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes overnight in central Gaza. Parents and their two children and a mother and her two children were wrapped in white burial shrouds as friends and neighbors wept.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 17-year-old was killed and nine other people wounded after an Israeli drone strike in Balata camp in Nablus. The Israeli military said one of its aircraft was shot down in Nablus.
Most of the 1200 people killed by Hamas in southern Israel were civilians and they took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.