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An Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering in the central Gaza Strip killed at least 17 people on Thursday, nearly all women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strike came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas, and that negotiations over a cease-fire and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages would resume “in the coming days.”
Another 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, according to the hospital’s records.
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The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has carried out strikes on several schools-turned-shelters in recent months, saying it precisely targets militants hiding out among civilians. The strikes often kill women and children.
Blinken, speaking to reporters in Qatar, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said negotiators would return to Doha to renew the talks.
“What we really have to determine is whether Hamas is prepared to engage,” Blinken said on his 11th visit to the region since the start of the war.
Hamas’s political representatives have not so far signaled a softer stance.
“There is no change in our position,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese broadcaster seen as closely aligned with Iran and its allies.
Hamdan said Hamas delegates heard from mediators in Cairo about the potential to revive cease-fire negotiations but reiterated that the group still insists on an end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza, as well as its complete withdrawal from the territory.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said the head of the Mossad, the country’s spy agency, would travel to Qatar on Sunday to meet with CIA director Bill Burns and the Qatari prime minister.
