Israeli attack on Gaza shelter kills 17 as Blinken says ceasefire talks will resume

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli attack on a school where displaced people were taking refuge in the central Gaza Strip killed at least 17 people Thursday, almost all women and children, Palestinian health officials said.

The attack came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had achieved its goal of “effectively dismantling” Hamas and that negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages would resume in the coming days.

According to the Awda Hospital, which received the injured, another 42 people were injured in the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp that was set up. According to the hospital, the dead included 13 children under the age of 18 and three women.

The Israeli military said it attacked Hamas militants at the school without providing evidence. Israel has carried out several attacks on schools turned into shelters in recent months, saying it is specifically targeting militants hiding among the civilian population. Women and children are often killed in the strikes.

Blinken, speaking to reporters in Qatar, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said negotiators would meet again “in the coming days.”

“We really need to determine whether Hamas is ready to get involved,” he said, on his 11th visit to the region since the war began.

The United States hopes to restart negotiations after Israeli forces killed senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, but neither side has shown signs of reneging on its demands after months of negotiations that stalled over the summer would be moderate.

Blinken also announced $135 million in additional U.S. aid to the Palestinians and reiterated calls on Israel to allow more aid into the territory.

Meanwhile, health workers in the besieged north of the Gaza Strip warned of a catastrophic situation there, where Israel has been waging an air and ground offensive for more than two weeks.

The hospital director in northern Gaza says supplies are running low

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent days and tens of thousands have fled their homes in northern Gaza. The military says it is fighting against Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.

Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, said in a video message released on Wednesday that about 150 injured people were being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal unit.

“There are a lot of injured people and we are losing at least one person every hour because of a lack of medical supplies and medical personnel,” he said.

“Our ambulances cannot transport the wounded,” he said. “Those who can get to the hospital on their own are cared for, but those who can’t simply die on the street.”

Footage shared with The Associated Press shows medical staff caring for premature babies and several older children in hospital beds, some with severe burns. A child is strapped to a ventilator, with bandages on her face and flies hovering above her.

“We offer patients the bare essentials. “Everyone is paying the price for what is now happening in the northern Gaza Strip,” said Abu Safiyeh.

Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in the north that have been largely inaccessible due to the fighting. According to the World Health Organization, the war has devastated the health system across Gaza, leaving only 16 of 39 hospitals partially functioning.

First responders stopped the operation after they said Israel shot at them

Civil Defense, a first responder to the Hamas government, said it had suspended operations in the north. They said Israeli forces fired on one of their teams in the town of Beit Lahiya after ordering them to move to the Indonesian hospital where troops are stationed.

Three members of the civil defense were injured in the attack and a fire truck was destroyed, it said. It said another five of its employees were being held in hospital by Israeli forces.

“As a result, we declare that civil defense operations in the northern Gaza Strip have completely ceased, leaving these areas without firefighting, rescue or emergency medical services,” it said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the allegations.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. About 100 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive. Gaza's health ministry did not say how many were combatants, but said more than half of those killed were women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants without providing evidence.

The war has displaced around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into tent camps along the coast after entire neighborhoods in many areas were reduced to rubble.

Months of negotiations on a ceasefire brokered by the USA, Egypt and Qatar stalled over the summer. The war has now spread to Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion more than three weeks ago after fighting firefights with the militant Hezbollah group for much of the past year.

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Amiri reported from Doha, Qatar and Khaled from Cairo. Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.

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