Israeli strike at Gaza school kills 33, Hamas yet to respond to truce proposal
An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people on Thursday. Following the attack, the Israel Defense Forces said Hamas terrorists were operating from within the school. Meanwhile, Qatar Foreign Ministry has said that Hamas has not yet handed mediators its response to the latest ceasefire proposal and is still studying it.
Amid the ongoing war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, The Associated Press reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: THE LATEST
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At least 33 people were killed after Israel hit a Gaza school on Thursday. Video footage showed Palestinians hauling away bodies and scores of injured in a hospital after the attack, which took place at a sensitive moment in mediated talks on a ceasefire that would involve releasing hostages held by Hamas and some of the Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
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Following the strike, the Israeli military said the central Gaza compound was being used by terrorists. Addressing a press conference, an IDF spokesperson said those targeted were members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force and of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group who “directed terror attacks from the area of the school while exploiting it as a civilian location and as a shelter. The terrorists inside this school were planning more attacks against Israelis, some of them imminent.”
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Meanwhile, the US State Department has said the country has been in contact with Israel about the strike at Gaza school. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller also said that Washington expects Israel to be fully transparent in making information about the strike public.
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On Thursday, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said Hamas has not yet handed mediators its response to the latest ceasefire proposal and is still studying it, adding that Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators were still making efforts. Talks began on Wednesday when Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns met senior officials from Qatar and Egypt in Doha to discuss a proposal that US President Joe Biden publicly endorsed last week.
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