Nearly 100 killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, US: Deeply concerned

Palestinian health authorities say an Israeli airstrike hit a school in Gaza City where displaced people were being housed, killing about 100 people. The Israeli military acknowledged the attack on tabeen school, claiming it hit a Hamas command center inside the school. Hamas denied using the school as a command center.

About 100 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on Friday, Palestinian health officials said.

It is one of the deadliest attacks in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli military acknowledged the attack on tabeen school, saying it hit a Hamas command center.

"Numerous steps were taken to minimize the risk of harm to civilians," the Israeli military said in a statement.

"Israeli security services found that about 20 Hamas militants and Islamic Jihad, including senior commanders, were using the Tabeen school compound to plan attacks on Israeli forces," Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in a post on the X social network.

The militant group on the other hand denied this claim.

"The Israelite forces hit our people this morning as they were preparing for prayer. They fired three missiles, two from aircraft and one from a drone. So far, there have been more than 93 people killed, including 11 children and six women," Palestinian Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told media.

According to the hospital, more than 100 others were injured.

The United States expressed deep concern about the event.

"We are deeply concerned about the reports of civilian deaths in Gaza following an Israeli Defense Forces air strike on a compound that includes a school," the White House said in a statement, adding that Washington was in communication with Israel to seek information.

The statement said "a high number of civilians are being killed and wounded" in Gaza and reiterated calls for a ceasefire.

In a report released Monday, the U.N. Human Rights Office said there were at least 17 attacks on schools in the past month that killed 163 people, many of them women and children.

Many of the schools were serving as a place of refuge, the report said, adding that Israel has a duty under international law to provide safe haven for displaced people.

Israel blames Hamas for the deaths of civilians in Gaza, saying the group endangers civilians by exploiting schools and inhabited neighborhoods as bases for operations and attacks.

New round of ceasefire talks

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on the X Network that he was shocked by the footage at the school where the attack took place.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, urged Israel's ally Washington to end "blind support leading to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women and the elderly."

Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey condemned the attack.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the attack should serve as a turning point as mediators try to trigger a resumption of ceasefire talks.

A Hamas official told Reuters news agency that the group was considering a new proposal, but gave no more details.

Egypt said the killing of Gaza civilians showed Israel has no intention of ending the war. Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the attack a "horrific massacre."

The United States, Egypt and Qatar planned thursday to hold a new round of ceasefire talks in Gaza, as concern grows about an expansion of the conflict that could involve Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he would not end the war until Hamas no longer poses a threat to Israelis, said he would send a delegation.

Israel's campaign in Gaza killed more than 39,790 Palestinians and wounded more than 92,000 others, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between fighters and civilians.

The war was triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7, in which militants from Gaza entered southern Israel, killing about 1200 people and kidnapping 250 others.

More than 1.9 million Gazans have fled their homes, fleeing the territory repeatedly to escape attacks. Most are now clustered in overcrowded tent camps, in an area of about 50 square kilometers (30 square miles) off the coast of Gaza. /VOA