Israeli attack on school housing displaced Palestinians leaves 16 dead

(MENAFN-Gulf Times) At least 16 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced Palestinian families in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza on Saturday, the territory’s health ministry and the official Palestinian news agency said.
The ministry condemned the attack as a “heinous massacre” and said another 50 injured people were taken to hospital from the Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat in central Gaza.
The press office of the Hamas-led government said 7,000 people had sought shelter in the UN school.
Previously, paramedics had said that ten people, including three journalists, had died in an attack on a house in Nuseirat.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, said two of its staff were killed in a strike in Al-Bureij in central Gaza. The agency operates a large food warehouse in the district.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel has conducted a military offensive since October 7 that has killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, mostly civilians.
The attack on the school has left the enclave with no safe place for families to leave their homes to seek shelter, an official said.
Al-Nuseirat, one of the eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, was the scene of increased Israeli bombing on Saturday.
Five local journalists were among those killed in the airstrikes. According to the Hamas-run government media office in the Gaza Strip, this brings the number of journalists killed since October 7 to 158.
Israeli forces expanding their incursions into Rafah in the south of the enclave near the border with Egypt killed four Palestinian policemen and wounded eight others in an airstrike on their vehicle on Saturday, health officials said.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas denies Israeli allegations that it uses civilian property and facilities for military purposes.
Real progress in ceasefire talks: USA
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has accepted the US proposal to start talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages, Reuters quoted a senior Hamas source as saying.
The group has dropped the demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement and will allow negotiations to achieve that goal during the first six-week phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential.
A US official declined to confirm Hamas’ decision, adding: “There is real progress, but much remains to be done.”
A Palestinian official said the proposal, if accepted by Israel, could lead to a framework agreement and end the nine-month war.
A source from the Israeli negotiating team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that there was now a real chance of an agreement.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Friday, his office said talks would continue next week and stressed that there were still differences of opinion between the sides.

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