Live updates from Israel and Gaza: 14 killed in IDF attacks on two Gaza schools, Gaza officials say

Representatives of the United Nations and the Israeli Defense Ministry met to discuss security issues surrounding the distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip, a US official told ABC News.

-Shannon Crawford of ABC News

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Tuesday addressed fears that the United Nations may suspend its humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip as conditions facing its staff in the enclave have continued to deteriorate.

“I can tell you that this is an issue that we have been focusing on intensely,” Miller said, adding that the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for humanitarian affairs in the Middle East has been working with the United Nations and Israeli agencies to “try to find a way for UN staff to do their jobs safely.”

Miller noted that while some aid was entering Gaza through various entry points and being transported through the north, the U.S. had observed “a major backlog in recent weeks” at Kerem Shalom – the border between Israel and southern Gaza – due to a “breakdown of security on the ground.” This was not caused by the Israel Defense Forces or Hamas, but by “indiscriminate looting and criminal gangs and criminal actors hijacking trucks,” Miller said.

Miller said UN aid workers would be provided with “personal protective equipment, radios and other communications equipment so they can communicate with each other and move safely in Gaza.”

Miller said: “In the long term, we want a ceasefire and the restoration of a Palestinian-led government. And ultimately, we have ideas about how to ensure security in Gaza, how to provide governance and reconstruction – all of these things would help restore law and order. … But this is a long-term approach that in no way takes into account the here and now.”

Miller also argued that the US can play only a limited role in improving the safety of aid workers at this point, and that this is ultimately an issue that Israel and the UN must address.

-Shannon Crawford of ABC News

According to the World Health Organization, more than 10,000 people need to be evacuated from Gaza to receive medical care due to deteriorating conditions in Gaza hospitals.

Among them are five children – four cancer patients and one child with second-degree burns – who were transferred from Al-Ahli Hospital to Nasser Medical Complex on Monday, where they will remain for treatment until they can leave Gaza, the WHO said.

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces.

The move is a blow to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said: “The military exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews is illegal. The Defense Minister must uphold the law and force tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox youth who have so far evaded military service to join the military.”

The Israel Defense Forces carried out air strikes overnight on two schools in Gaza City where internally displaced people had sought shelter. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, 14 people were killed.

The Israeli military said the attacks were directed against “terrorists operating inside two buildings” and that the targets were “terrorists involved in the hostage-taking.”

An Israel Defense Forces statement said that “air surveillance controls, precision weapons and additional intelligence measures were deployed to reduce harm to civilians.”

A video filmed by a Civil Defense paramedic at the Abdel Fattah Hamoud school in central Gaza appears to show an unconscious girl being pulled from the burning rubble of a school, with large parts of her body apparently covered in burns.

According to the Ministry of Health, eight people were killed in the attack, including five children.

-Victoria Beaule of ABC News