A senior Hamas official is among four people killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza City, Palestinian sources said.
A local official told the BBC that Ehab Al-Ghussein was appointed three months ago to manage the affairs of the Hamas government in Gaza City and northern Gaza.
The Israeli army says it has carried out a raid on the area of a school building in Gaza City which shows that “terrorists were active and in hiding”.
Measures are being taken to minimize the risk of civilian injury.
Eyewitnesses say the attack targeted the Holy Family School next to the Holy Family Church west of Gaza City, with a large number of people seeking shelter in the building, the BBC understands.
The airstrike targeted two classrooms on the ground floor, authorities said.
At the same time, the Israeli army issued another evacuation order for a central part of Gaza City.
Residents told the BBC that dozens of families were leaving and he saw women and children walking west with bags.
Ibrahim Al-Barbari, 47, lives with his wife, five children, mother and sister in the Bani Amer neighborhood, which is in the area the army has ordered residents to leave.
“We heard from the neighbors that we had to leave the house. We have not received any calls or text messages from the army, but we have already started collecting our belongings in preparation for the move.
“We have been living in a state of famine for months.”
Ehab Al-Ghussein was previously deputy minister of labor in the Hamas government and before that spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. His death is not seen as a blow to Hamas militarily, but he was seen as an important figure in the leadership of the Hamas government.
Many more people within the Hamas leadership have been killed in the past nine months.
An Israeli airstrike last November killed the deputy minister of culture and the deputy speaker of the Legislative Council, along with other government employees and officials, and senior police officers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly made it clear that the goal of Israel’s war against Hamas is to destroy the organization both politically and militarily.
The war in Israel was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, in which Hamas-led fighters killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.
At least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed as a result of the Israeli offensive, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
