GAZA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 43 Palestinians were killed on Sunday in a series of Israeli raids across the Gaza Strip, according to official Palestinian sources.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Xinhua that at least 40 people were killed when Israeli forces stormed the Khalil Awida school, which was housing displaced families in the town of Beit Hanoun, north of the Strip.
Hamas condemned the Israeli attack on the school, calling it a continuation of the "forced displacement" operations carried out by the Israeli army in northern Gaza for over two months.
In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on a tent housing displaced people in Deir al-Balah killed one Palestinian and injured eight others, according to a statement from al-Aqsa Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported one fatality from an airstrike on the al-Amal neighborhood, west of Khan Younis, while emergency and ambulance units recovered the body of another person killed in an airstrike on the Khirbet al-Adas area northeast of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Ashraf al-Qader, spokesman for Gaza's health authorities, announced in a press statement that the Israeli army destroyed a health center providing primary care services in the Jabalia camp, northern Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that, in coordination with the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), they conducted a targeted raid on a militant meeting point in the Beit Hanoun area. In Beit Lahia, IDF troops killed militants and dismantled large quantities of weapons, including explosives and dozens of grenades.
Additionally, the Israeli air force targeted militants operating from a command and control center within a compound that previously served as the Abu Shabak clinic in northern Gaza, according to the IDF.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 44,976, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday. ■
