Israel war on Gaza updates: 16 killed in Israeli attack on UNRWA-run school

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Read more about Israel’s strike on an UNRWA-run school in Nusirat today, which killed 16 people, here.

There’s also more on the five journalists killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza today here.

And for all of our coverage of the Gaza conflict, click here.

This live page will close soon. Here’s a look at today’s events in Israel’s war on Gaza:

• An Israeli strike on the Jaouni school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, killed “more than 16 people” and injured 75, according to the Government Media Office. The school is serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.
• An Israeli drone strike on a car in Lebanon’s Baalbek killed Meitham Mustafa al-Attar, a Hezbollah fighter that Israel claims was a senior figure in the group’s air defence unit.
• Israeli air attacks killed five journalists today in the Gaza Strip, in Nuseirat and Gaza City.
• The UK’s new foreign secretary, David Lammy, said his country is seeking a “balanced” position on Gaza and will use diplomatic efforts to ensure a ceasefire is reached and the captives held by Hamas are released.

There have been large demonstrations in the Jordanian capital, with several local activists publishing videos on X showing large crowds of people waving Jordanian and Palestinian flags and holding up banners showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Thousands of protesters have marched across Central London calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Protesters say they expect the newly-elected prime minister, Keir Starmer to uphold his campaign pledge in recognising Palestinian statehood.

Watch our video report to learn more: 

Dr Mohammed Tahir, a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Al-Aqsa Hospital, spoke to Al Jazeera about the aftermath of the Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday.

“I’m really at a loss for words”, he said as he explained that he had been operating when he got the call to stop as the casualties from the strikes began to arrive at the hospital.

When he arrived at the emergency room, he saw a number of killed individuals heading straight to the morgue, he said.

“I entered the ER, and there was absolute chaos. The first thing I saw was the three or four children on the floor, one of whom had horrific injuries to the lower back, a flesh wound that went all the way down to the spine”.

“He had trouble moving his legs. So, I can only imagine that he had a severe spinal cord injury.

“Bear in mind, we don’t have a CT scanner at Al-Aqsa Hospital. It’s not set up as a trauma centre, so this hospital, which should normally run with a capacity of 200, has 600 patients”.

“You have children lying on the floors, men lying on a floor, injured people everywhere. It’s chaos, and you’re dealing with an already broken system.”

A public opinion poll conducted by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 found that 54 percent of Israelis believe the prime minister’s political considerations are why the war has not been stopped.

The poll also found that 67 percent of Israelis believe the release of the captives held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups should be the government’s priority.

Only 26 percent believe that destroying Hamas should be the priority.

Hopes that a ceasefire may be achieved – as well as the return of the Israeli captives – were revived earlier this week after months of deadlock.

Yesterday, an Israeli delegation led by spy chief David Barnea travelled to Qatar to meet with mediators, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

The talks are set to resume next week, the office said, when another negotiating team would be deployed to Qatar.

The Israeli military says that its air force has struck Hezbollah infrastructure and an observation post in the area of Houla in southern Lebanon.

In a post on X, it said it also attacked another Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah in Lebanon have traded regular fire since October 8, when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Israel has attacked Hezbollah nearly four times as much, with more than 6,000 attacks along the 120km (75-mile) border.

You can read our interactive report mapping the cross-border attacks here.

Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV says that the country will host Israeli and US delegations to discuss “outstanding issues” in a possible Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Citing a senior official, Al Qahera News said Egypt is conducting talks with Hamas to conclude ceasefire and captives-for-prisoners swap deals.

Israeli media is reporting that clashes have broken out in Tel Aviv between police and demonstrators demanding a deal that will secure the release of the Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza.

Social media video from the streets of Israel shows police arresting demonstrators.

The army has taken responsibility for today’s bombing of a UN school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza that caused the deaths of at least 16 people, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

The army said in a statement that the attack took place “in the area” of the al-Jaouni school, and targeted “terrorists”.

The statement added that the army tried to minimise harm to civilians.

Our correspondent said earlier that the majority of the more than 75 wounded in the attack were children, as they reported from Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah.

We’ve been reporting on an Israeli attack that hit a school run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in central Gaza, which the Government Media Office says killed at least 16 people.

Read more about this attack in our report here.

The Israeli military claims that its attack near Baalbek killed Meitham Mustafa al-Attar, who it says was a “key operative in Hezbollah’s Ariel Defence Unit”.

It stated that al-Attar had taken part in the planning and execution of “numerous” attacks on Israel and had travelled to Iran “multiple times”.

The Israeli military said in Iran he “gained knowledge and assisted in building up” Hezbollah’s military capabilities and “arsenal of Iranian weapons”.

Hezbollah has confirmed that al-Attar was killed today.

The Lebanese group says on X that Maitham Mustafa al-Attar, also known as “Hadi”, was killed today.

It said he was born in 1991, and was from the town of Shaath in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

As usual, Hezbollah made no mention of where and when this fighter was killed, but his hometown is near the city of Baalbek, where earlier an Israeli drone raid on a car killed one person, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Israeli army radio reported that the target of the attack was a senior engineer for Hezbollah’s air defence unit, but this is so far unconfirmed.