DEIR AL BALAH, — An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people on Thursday, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted militants, but people sheltering there said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers.
Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.
In a separate development, the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalized. The attack drew widespread condemnation and prompted the Italian Defense Ministry to summon Israel's ambassador in protest.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL said in a statement that its headquarters and nearby positions “have been repeatedly hit.” It said the Israeli army also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker's entrance.
The reports came as the Israeli military continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon while the militant group kept up its rocket attacks, setting off air raid sirens in parts of northern Israel.
Lebanon's crisis response unit said Israeli shellfire and airstrikes killed 28 people and wounded 113 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 2,169 killed and 10,212 people wounded in Lebanon since the war erupted last October. Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians in northern Israel since the war began, as well as 39 Israeli soldiers, including both in northern Israel since last October and in southern Lebanon since Israel’s invasion.
Lebanese authorities said the latest Israeli attacks have focused on southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, where on Thursday they said Israeli strikes killed four people and wounded 17 in the village of Karak.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military.
