CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike hit two schools in Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 25 people, the Palestinian official news agency said, while the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas military compound embedded in the schools.
An Israeli air strike hit a tent camp inside a hospital in central Gaza earlier in the day. Gaza health officials said at least 44 Palestinians were killed on Sunday, the day after a round of talks in Cairo ended without result.
Footage circulated on Palestinian media showed bodies scattered inside the yard of one of two blast-wrecked schools as residents rushed to carry casualties, including children, and loaded them into ambulance vehicles that took them to at least two nearby hospitals. The Palestinian officials news agency WAFA and Hamas media said dozens were wounded in addition to the 25 fatalities in the schools of Hassan Salama and Al-Nasser, which housed Palestinian displaced families. They said the strike destroyed several structures inside the facilities.
The Israeli military said it struck militants inside a Hamas command embedded within the schools, accusing Hamas of operating from within civilian property. Hamas denies using civilian institutions for military purposes.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli strike inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound started a fire, and wounded at least 18 people as well as killing five, medical authorities said.
Elsewhere in Deir Al-Balah, three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house. Separate Israeli strikes killed eight others inside their home in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza City and three inside a car.
A Palestinian attacker killed two people and wounded two others in a stabbing spree in central Israel on Sunday before being shot dead by police, authorities said.
The stabbings took place during morning rush hour in the city of Holon, near Tel Aviv. Two senior citizens, a man and woman, were killed and two other people were wounded and rushed to hospital, medical officials said.