PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES â A deadly strike hit a school turned shelter in southern Gaza on Tuesday as Israeli forces in the war-ravaged territoryâs main city pushed on with a major offensive that has again displaced Palestinians.
A hospital source in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza said at least 29 people were killed when the school was hit in nearby Abasan.
The Israeli military said its air force had carried out a strike in the area targeting a âterroristâ and would review the incident.
READ: Deadly strikes hit Gaza as war enters tenth month
Three previous Israeli strikes since Saturday on schools across Gaza used by displaced Palestinians have killed a total of at least 20 people, according to officials and rescuers.
In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli troops, tanks and fighter jets swooped on Gaza City on the eve of new contacts in Qatar aiming for an eventual hostage-prisoner exchange and a truce in the war, raging into its 10th month.
CIA director William Burns and Israelâs Mossad chief David Barnea are due to travel to Qatar on Wednesday, after Burns held talks with Egyptâs President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.
READ: Hamas signals shift on key Gaza truce demand
Hamas, whose October 7 attack triggered the war, has softened a key demand and accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately escalating fighting to thwart an agreement.
The Islamist groupâs Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh said he had warned mediators that the âcatastrophic consequencesâ of the latest battles could âreset the negotiation processâ.
Hamasâs armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, described the latest fighting in Gaza City as âthe most intense in monthsâ.
The United Nations said tens of thousands of civilians have been affected by the surge in fighting since the first of three evacuation orders for Gaza City was declared on June 27.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said that âwe have around 350,000 people again on the roadâ but âbasically, there is absolutely no safe space in Gazaâ.
âStarvation campaignâ
After almost two weeks of battles in Gaza Cityâs eastern Shujaiya district, Israeli forces have extended the fighting further into the cityâs east, west and south.
Residents told AFP they saw helicopter strikes, âexplosions, and numerous gun battlesâ in the cityâs southwest.
Elsewhere in Gaza, witnesses reported artillery shelling near the central Nuseirat refugee camp and west of Rafah, in the territoryâs south.
READ: Tens of thousands flee south Gaza as tensions soar
Israelâs military said its air and ground forces were pursuing Palestinian militants in Gaza City, six months after it said it had dismantled Hamasâs âmilitary frameworkâ in the territoryâs north.
The UN Human Rights Office said it was âappalledâ at the way civilians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, have been ordered to head to areas where âmilitary operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injuredâ.
Thousands were seen marching down dusty roads past bombed-out buildings, with mothers carrying babies and others packing belongings onto donkey carts.
Independent UN rights experts accused Israel of carrying out a âtargeted starvation campaignâ that has resulted in the deaths of Gazan children and constituted âa form of genocidal violenceâ.
âThirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since October 7, the majority being children,â said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
Israelâs mission to the UN in Geneva accused the panelâs members of âspreading misinformationâ and âsupporting Hamas propagandaâ.
âOnly lifelineâ
Yussef Jaber, 24, said there was hardly any food left in northern Gaza, lamenting âa life of shame and humiliationâ.
âThere is nothing for us except some flour and tinned goods that make us sick,â he said. âWe have no vegetables to cook or meat.â
More than nine months of war have shuttered many hospitals across Gaza, and on Tuesday the Palestinian Red Crescent said all of its facilities in the Gaza City area were out of service.
Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said on social media platform X that âthe closure of these vital medical facilities exacerbates an already dire healthcare systemâ.
âThese clinics and medical points are often the only lifeline for many civilians.â
Hamasâs October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territoryâs health ministry.
Hamas has signaled that it would drop its insistence on a âcompleteâ ceasefire â which Israel has repeatedly rejected â as a condition for starting truce talks, mediated by Qatar and Egypt with support from the United States.
Netanyahuâs office has set out conditions, including that âany deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achievedâ.
Conflict with Hezbollah
As the Gaza war has raged on, Israel has also exchanged regular cross-border fire with Lebanonâs Hezbollah, allies of Hamas, heightening fears of an all-out war.
Hezbollah on Tuesday released a video showing aerial surveillance footage it said was taken over intelligence and military positions in the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan Heights.
Rocket fire on Tuesday killed two Israelis in the Golan Heights, police said.
It came after an Israeli strike last week killed a senior Hezbollah commander, prompting retaliatory barrages of rockets and drones.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, on X, told Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to âstop the threats and violenceâ, and âwithdrawâ forces from the border area, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended their latest major war in 2006.
If a full-blown conflict breaks out, Israelâs top diplomat said Nasrallah âwill be considered the destroyer of Lebanonâ.