The China Mail - Gaza rescuers say 13 killed in Israeli strike on school

"Civil defence crews in Gaza City retrieved 13 martyrs and 21 injured from inside Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood, after the Israeli occupation forces targeted it at dawn today," Gaza's civil defence agency wrote on Telegram.

Israel has stepped up its offensive this month, aiming for "the defeat of Hamas", more than 18 months after the group's October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

The intensified fighting has drawn condemnation from the international community as an aid blockade lasting almost three months has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory.

Spain's foreign minister on Sunday called for sanctions on Israel as European and Arab nations gathered in Madrid.

The talks aimed to stop Israel's "inhumane" and "senseless" war in Gaza, Jose Manuel Albares told reporters before the meeting opened.

Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza "massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel", he added, describing the territory as humanity's "open wound".

Spain also urged partners to impose an arms embargo on Israel and "not rule out any" individual sanctions against those "who want to ruin the two-state solution forever", he added.

The fresh condemnation came after Gaza rescuers said 22 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli air strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said seven people were killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, in the north.

Some people were still under the debris, he added, as "the civil defence does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the wounded and recover the martyrs".

- 'Hunger, desperation' -

Two more people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant, were killed in an attack targeting tents sheltering displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, he said, adding that doctors were unable to save the unborn child.

Also included in the toll were the civil defence's director of operations Ashraf Abu Nar and his wife, according to Bassal.

Fatal strikes were also recorded around Deir el-Balah in the centre of the territory, Beit Lahia in the north, and the main southern city of Khan Yunis.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports.

Israel has in recent days partially eased a blockade that was imposed on March 2 and exacerbated widespread shortages of food and medicine in Gaza.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that coordinates civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said "107 trucks belonging to the UN and the international community carrying humanitarian aid... were transferred" into Gaza on Sunday.

But critics charge this is nowhere near enough, especially as many of the aid trucks end up being looted.

The World Food Programme has called on Israel "to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster", saying: "Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity."

- Aid controversy -

The head of a controversial US-backed group preparing to move aid into the Gaza Strip also announced his abrupt resignation Sunday.

In a statement by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), executive director Jake Wood said that he felt compelled to leave after determining the organisation could not fulfil its mission in a way that adhered to "humanitarian principles".

The foundation has vowed to distribute about 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.

But the United Nations and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, amid accusations it is working with Israel.

Gaza's health ministry said Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,939, mostly civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

L.Kwan--ThChM