The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says 26 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on a mosque and school buildings for displaced Palestinians in the center of the territory.
Dozens of people were also injured early Sunday morning in strikes that hit the Ibn Rushd School and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in Deir al-Balah, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas militants operating in “command and control” centers at the sites.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces surrounded the Jabalia area in response to what they said were Hamas’ efforts to rebuild.
The military also issued new possible evacuation zones in the north and reopened routes to a humanitarian area.
After the attacks in central Gaza, BBC-verified videos from the mosque show bodies and blood on the ground among the rubble, while footage at the school shows the building on fire and a man being pulled away on a stretcher.
Earlier, the Hamas-led Civil Protection Agency said 21 people were killed and a large number injured in the attack on the mosque, according to news agency AFP.
Sunday’s strikes took place almost exactly a year after October 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Since then, 41,870 Palestinians have been killed and more than 97,000 injured in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. No distinction is made between civilians and combatants.
According to the United Nations, which uses figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health and considers them reliable, 187 people were killed in Gaza between September 30 and October 4 alone.
In a statement on the attack on the mosque, Hamas accused Israel of “bombarding civilians’ homes and demolishing them over their heads, causing dozens of deaths and injuries.”
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that “many steps were taken before the attacks to reduce the risk of harm to civilians, including the use of precision weapons, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence information.”
The IDF accused Hamas of “exploiting civilian institutions and the population as human shields for terrorist acts.”
Later on Sunday, the IDF said it had carried out an airstrike on another school in northern Gaza, saying it was being used as a Hamas “command and control complex.”
Hamas has denied using schools and other civilian sites for military purposes.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the Israeli army began encircling Jabalia in the north overnight, in response to what the IDF said were attempts by Hamas to rebuild the area.
The army said it had hit “dozens of military targets” before and during the ground operation.
The IDF warned the public that northern Gaza “is still considered a dangerous combat zone” and published a new map on Sunday showing zones for possible evacuation in the north.
It also said it has expanded the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, although it is still smaller than in early July.
Both the mosque and the school that were hit on Sunday are in the humanitarian zone.
The IDF said it had reopened two evacuation routes from the north to access the zone.
Israel does not allow international journalists from media organizations, including the BBC, independent access to Gaza, making it difficult to verify facts on the ground.
