Crisis in the Middle East live: 20 dead in strike at central school in Gaza Strip; Harris urges Israel to bring more aid to northern areas | Israel-Gaza war

At least four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday Flames swept through a crowded camp for displaced people, leaving more than two dozen severely burned, according to Palestinian medics.

Associated Press reports:

The Israeli military said it was targeting militants hiding among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months there have been repeated overcrowded accommodations and tent camps, with allegations that Hamas fighters had used them as a target.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in downtown Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of injured in an earlier attack on a school-turned-shelter nearby that killed at least 20 people were killed when the airstrike struck early in the morning and fire engulfed many of the tents.

Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head. Another small child with a bandaged leg received a blood transfusion on the floor of the crowded hospital.

Hospital records showed four people were killed and 40 were injured. According to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, 25 people were transferred to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

An Israeli air strike in central Gaza on Sunday evening killed at least 20 people, including children at a schoolaccording to two local hospitals. The school in Nuseirat housed some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.

In the meantime, Explosions occurred outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah early MondayThree people were killed and around 50 others were injured, the hospital said. Tents caught fire and residents of the community in the central Gaza Strip carried the injured to hospital.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks forced their way into the gates of a position early Sunday and destroyed the main gate. They later fired smoke bullets near peacekeepers, causing skin irritation. UNIFIL called the incident “another blatant violation of international law.”

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Israel “urgently needs to do more to ease the flow of aid to those in need.” northern Gaza Strip.

Civilians must be protected and have access to food, water and medicine. International humanitarian law must be respected.”

In recent days, Israeli forces have expanded their attack into the north Gaza Many families are forced to leave their homes. The territory’s health ministry appealed on Friday for medical teams to be allowed access to the northern half of the strip to evacuate the wounded and called for fuel deliveries to stricken hospitals in the north. It warned that civilians affected by the heavy shelling and airstrikes were deployed without food and water.

The Gaza Strip Civil Defense Authority said an Israeli shelling late Sunday killed at least 15 people at a school used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

Al-Mufti School was bombarded with a large volley of Israeli artillery, initially resulting in 15 deaths, including children, women and entire families, as well as 50 wounded,” the officials said. The Israeli military said it was “reviewing the reports.”

• Four soldiers were killed and seven others seriously injured in a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel On Sunday, the Israeli military said it was the militant group’s deadliest attack since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago. Hezbollah described the attack near the town of Binyamina as retaliation for Israeli attacks on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani Brigade and fired dozens of missiles during the attack by “squadrons” of drones to occupy Israeli air defense systems.

• The US will send a missile defense system and a US military crew to Israel to operate the system. In a statement released Sunday, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the U.S. will also send an “associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help strengthen Israel’s air defenses.”

• An Israeli raid on Al Ma’asara in Lebanon’s Keserwan district killed 16 people. In a post on Sunday updating the death toll from yesterday’s attacks, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 21 people were injured in addition to the 16 people killed.

• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Sunday that any attacks on peacekeepers “could constitute a war crime,” his spokesman said, after Israeli tanks broke through the gates of a peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon. Reuters reports that this is the latest allegation of Israeli violations and attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission Unifil in recent days.

• In a statement released late Sunday, the Israeli military said a Merkava tank attempted to evacuate injured soldiers and had accidentally retreated into the Unifil post while under fire amid a smoke screen.

• In a video statement addressed to Guterres on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israeli calls for the evacuation of Unifil troops. “It is time for you to withdraw Unifil from Hezbollah strongholds and combat zones,” he said. “The IDF has repeatedly requested this and has repeatedly met with refusal, resulting in the provision of human shields to Hezbollah terrorists.”

• French President Emmanuel Macron called on his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call on Sunday to support a “general de-escalation” in the Middle East, the presidential office said. Reuters reports that in a separate discussion, Macron reiterated to Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati the “absolute necessity” of reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon without further delay.