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At least 17 Palestinians were killed on Sunday when Israeli forces bombed a school and a hospital in Gaza City in the middle continued attack on civil infrastructure in the besieged territory.
The army attacked Musa Bin Nusayr school in urban al-Daraj neighborhood, killing eight people and injuring several others.
The military claimed the attack was aimed at Hamas militants operating from a command center embedded inside the school. It alleges, without providing evidence, that Hamas militants used the site to plan and carry out attacks on Israeli forces.
The attack on the school followed a series of airstrikes since the early hours of Sunday that have killed or injured dozens of civilians. A separate Israeli attack on Gaza City killed four Palestinians traveling in a vehicle, while airstrikes on the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis killed five.
Israeli forces continued to attack the barely functional Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, carrying out assaults on the facility and demanding people sheltering inside.
The director of the hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, told Xinhua that getting people out was “extremely difficult due to the intense bombardment”.
In the past few days, the Israeli army has deliberately attacked the electricity generators, solar panels and intensive care unit of the dilapidated hospital, rendering basic wards non-functional, Al Jazeera registered.
Footage shared by the news platform shows wounded Palestinians seeking refuge in the corridors of the hospital after it came under Israeli fire, with bullets piercing walls and damaging equipment.
Israeli forces have besieged northern Gaza since early October, blocking the delivery of food and aid to the nearly 75,000 Palestinians who refuse to leave their homes despite constant bombardment.
The UN called the siege a “stranglehold” on humanitarian efforts in the region.
Pope Francis, meanwhile, condemned the killing of children in Gaza in his Christmas address on Saturday, calling it “cruelty, not war”.
“Yesterday they did not allow the patriarch to enter Gaza as promised,” the pope said, referring to the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem who reportedly tried to enter the Gaza Strip to visit Catholics there but was denied entry by Israel.
“Children were bombed yesterday. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he added, speaking a day after Israeli strikes killed at least 25 Palestinians in the besieged territory. “I want to say that because it touches my heart.”
His remarks provoked a sharp response IsraelThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which rejected the criticism of the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholic Christians. “It is cruelty that terrorists hide behind children while trying to kill Israeli children,” the ministry said.
At least 45,259 Palestinians were killed and 107,627 wounded in the Israeli air and ground attack on Gaza, the health ministry reported on Sunday. The attack began after a Hamas attack killed 1,139 Israelis and captured nearly 250 in October 2023.