DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes killed at least 52 people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including 36 in a school-turned-shelter that was struck as people slept, setting their belongings ablaze, according to local health officials. The military said it targeted militants operating from the school.
Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas. It has vowed to seize full control of Gaza and keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and until the militant group returns the remaining 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, from the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
Israel began allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza last week after blocking all food, medicine, fuel or other goods from entering for 2 1/2 months. Aid groups have warned of famine and say the aid that has entered is nowhere near enough to meeting mounting needs.
A new aid system supported by Israel and the United States but rejected by U.N. agencies and aid groups was expected to begin operations as soon as Monday, despite the resignation of the American leading the effort, who said it would not be able to operate independently.
Israel says it plans to facilitate what it describes as the voluntary migration of Gaza's over 2 million population, a plan rejected by Palestinians and much of the international community. Hamas warned Palestinians on Monday not to cooperate with the new aid system, saying it is aimed at furthering those objectives.
Israel's military campaign has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced some 90% of its population. Many have fled multiple times.
In a separate development, ultranationalist Israelis gathered in Jerusalem for an annual procession marking Israel’s 1967 conquest of the city’s eastern sector. Some protesters chanted “Death to Arabs” and harassed Palestinian residents.
A small group, including a member of parliament, broke into the east Jerusalem compound of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has banned. The UNRWA compound has been mostly empty since January, when staff were asked to stay away for security reasons.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli police.
The strike on the school in Gaza City's Daraj neighborhood also wounded dozens of people, said Fahmy Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency service. He said a father and his five children were among the dead. The Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the overall toll.
Awad said the school was hit three times while people slept. Footage online showed rescuers struggling to extinguish fires and recovering charred remains.
Israel's military said it targeted a command center inside the school that Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants used to gather intelligence for attacks. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in residential areas.
A separate strike on a home in Jabaliya in northern Gaza killed 16 members of a family, including five women and two children, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies.
Palestinian militants, meanwhile, fired three projectiles from Gaza. Two fell short within the territory and a third was intercepted, according to Israel's military.
Israel plans to roll out a new aid distribution system run by a group known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, made up of former humanitarian, government and military officials, that would set up distribution points guarded by private security firms.
Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off assistance, without providing evidence. The foundation said in a statement it would begin delivering aid Monday and would reach a million Palestinians — around half of Gaza's population — by the end of the week.
U.N. agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the system, saying it would force more displacement, fail to meet needs and violate humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance. They also say there is no evidence of systematic diversion of aid by militants.
Jake Wood, the American heading the foundation, resigned Sunday, saying it had become clear the foundation would not be allowed to operate independently. It’s not clear who funds the group.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the 2023 attack. More than half the hostages have been returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals, eight have been rescued and Israeli forces have recovered the remains of dozens more.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It says more than half the dead are women and children but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to shelter in schools and squalid tent camps for well over a year.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
