Israel attacks market and school in Gaza, killing at least 20 Palestinians | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

At least eight people were killed in the market in Deir el-Balah, just hours after Israeli forces attacked another school, killing at least twelve displaced Palestinians.

In another deadly day in the Gaza Strip, at least 20 more Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces attacked a busy market and a school housing displaced people.

At least eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a busy market in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Tuesday, an Al Jazeera correspondent on the scene reported, saying the death toll could rise.

“This area is near the market, it is a very busy street. There is a lot of traffic and that is why there are many victims,” ​​said Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary.

She said many children were injured in the attack, which occurred in an area less than a kilometre from Al-Aqsa Hospital, where most of the injured were taken.

“At least 10 Palestinians, including children, are still in intensive care,” Khoudary said, adding that many of them were in critical condition.

“Most of the injured were children. We saw them lying on the floor in the hospital corridors, covered in blood and waiting for doctors.”

The attack on the market came just hours after another Israeli attack on a school in western Gaza City that killed 12 people and injured scores more.

Rescue workers searched for survivors; dozens of people are said to still be buried under the rubble after the school building collapsed.

“Our teams have recovered 12 martyrs from the Mustafa Hafiz School, which was bombed by the Israeli occupation west of Gaza City,” Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense, told AFP news agency on Tuesday.

According to civil defense authorities, about 700 displaced Palestinians found shelter in the school.

The injured were taken to al-Alhi Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

The Israeli army claimed it had attacked a command center in the school used by Palestinian fighters – a claim it has repeatedly made in connection with attacks on schools in the Gaza Strip, without providing any evidence.

Israel has systematically attacked civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and places of worship in its ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

According to local health authorities, more than 40,170 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and another 92,740 injured in the Israeli attack on Gaza since October 7.

Also on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited co-mediators Egypt and Qatar as part of his latest diplomatic mission to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remain.

In a statement, the armed Palestinian group Hamas accused the United States of postponing the terms of ceasefire talks and showing a “blind bias” against Israel.

Hamas said Blinken's claim that it was backing out of an agreement was “misleading” and that it remained committed to the US- and UN-backed ceasefire agreement presented in June.

“Biden's proposal calls for a full Israeli withdrawal in two phases and a complete ceasefire, while Israel's demands include only a temporary ceasefire for six weeks,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera.