War in West Asia: Israeli strike kills 28 in Gaza school

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 28 people including women and children on Thursday, while three hospitals in the north were told to evacuate, putting patients’ lives at risk, medics said.

The strike, in which many more were wounded, occurred in the city of Deir Al-Balah where a million people have taken shelter after fleeing fighting elsewhere after more than a year of war.

The Israeli military said on Thursday it had carried out a ‘precise strike on terrorists’ who had a command centre embedded in a school.

The Palestinian militant group denies such accusations.

Meanwhile, a UN commission on Thursday accused Israel of destroying Gaza’s health care system through ‘relentless and deliberate attacks’ in its yearlong war with Hamas and said that Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages had been tortured and sexually abused.