Israel’s relentless destruction of Gaza and targeting of the Palestinian civilian population show no sign of abating, with at least 73 people killed in attacks since dawn, as Hamas’s acceptance of a United States ceasefire plan to end the genocidal two-year war remains uncertain.
Two missiles struck al-Falah School on Wednesday, which had been converted into a shelter for hundreds of displaced people in the Zeitoun neighbourhood east of Gaza City, where Israel has expanded its ground invasion alongside heavy aerial bombardment.
As Palestinian Civil Defence crews rushed to the scene, another attack critically injured many of them, including Munther al-Dahshan, who was later confirmed to have died from his wounds.
“Eyewitnesses reported that when civil defence teams rushed to the site and tried to pull people out of the rubble, a full attack targeted them, leading to critical injuries,” Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reported from Gaza City.
Medical sources at al-Ahli Arab Hospital earlier told Al Jazeera that six people were killed and others were injured in the attack.
Other attacks targeted a house in the Daraj neighbourhood, killing at least seven people and injuring others, and the southeastern Zeitoun neighbourhood, killing a child, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
At least 47 of the latest 73 Palestinian victims were killed in Gaza City, sources told Al Jazeera.
As a result of the escalating hostilities, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that it had temporarily suspended operations in Gaza City, just as the NGO Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF) did last week.
“The ICRC will continue to strive to provide support to civilians in Gaza City, whenever circumstances allow, from our offices in Deir el-Balah and Rafah, which remain fully operational,” it said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the Gaza Government Media Office said that the Israeli military had shut al-Rashid Street, which it described as “one of the vital arteries that civilians rely on for travel between Gaza’s governorates”.
Thousands of Palestinians have been forced by Israeli bombardment to flee from the north to the south on this perilous route.
Meanwhile, 11 unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave inside al-Shifa Hospital’s courtyard, west of Gaza City. The medical complex, the largest in the besieged enclave, has been under constant Israeli fire in recent days.
Kidney dialysis patients at al-Shifa are in increasing peril as bombing and gunfire continue to surround them.
Emergency and ambulance sources reported that three citizens were killed in air raids targeting two houses in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, according to the Wafa news agency.
The attacks come as displaced Palestinians, who have fled heavy Israeli bombardment in Gaza City, continue to seek refuge further south.
Reporting from a coastal road in Nuseirat in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that people were arriving in an area that was “really under-resourced and overcrowded”.
“The conditions the people are living in here are very dire and catastrophic,” he said, noting that some families had no option but to set up tents near the sea.
Mohammed al-Turkmani, a displaced Palestinian who recently fled Gaza City with his wife and children, is among those living in a tent near the coast.
“I don’t know how we will survive in this tent. As winter approaches, we could be flooded and the tent could be torn apart,” al-Turkmani told Al Jazeera.
“I truly don’t know how I will cope with this – I just want to protect my family from heat and cold,” he said.
Out at sea, several vessels with the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is trying to break Israel’s punishing blockade of the famine-struck enclave, have been intercepted by Israeli naval forces.
The flotilla consists of more than 40 civilian boats carrying about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists. Previous flotillas were attacked or stopped by Israeli forces.
Qatari PM hopes ‘momentum’ will end war
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said the Gaza ceasefire plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump meets the key goals set by mediators – stopping the killing and displacement of Palestinians – and urged all sides to seize the “momentum” to bring Israel’s war to an end.
In an interview with Al Jazeera that aired on Wednesday, Sheikh Mohammed said Doha had passed the plan, already backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to Hamas’s negotiating team and discussed its broad terms.
“Everyone agreed on stopping the war, preventing displacement and the full withdrawal of the Israeli army. These are the three main, pivotal matters,” he said. “And the direct responsible party for managing Gaza are the Palestinian people themselves.”
“The main focus is how to protect the people in Gaza,” stressed Sheikh Mohammed.
Trump’s ‘sad end’ threat
Trump has given Hamas “three or four days” to respond to his Gaza ceasefire proposal, telling reporters that Israeli and Arab leaders had already accepted the plan.
“Hamas is either going to be doing it or not, and if it’s not, it’s going to be a very sad end,” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday.
Trump’s comments came a day after the White House released a 20-point document that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the exchange of Israeli captives held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and a staged Israeli withdrawal from the Strip.
Under the proposal, Hamas would be required to disarm, and the US would work with Arab and international partners to install a “temporary international stabilisation force”.
The plan also states that Hamas would play no role in governing Gaza. Its members would be offered amnesty if they committed to “peaceful coexistence”, while those wishing to leave the enclave would be granted safe passage abroad.
As Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, Hamas’s negotiating team has been studying Trump’s plan, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Tuesday.
The renewed push to end Israel’s two-year war on Gaza comes as the Palestinian death toll has risen above 66,000 and the coastal enclave endures a horrifying humanitarian crisis.