GAZA: The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said a Zionist airstrike on a school killed 30 people on Saturday, after a days-long military operation further south left around 170 dead, according to emergency services. The latest strike, which Zionists said targeted “terrorists”, was at least the eighth time since July 6 a school has been hit, leaving a total of more than 100 people dead, based on figures given by the health ministry and a hospital source.

With most of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people displaced at least once during the war started by Hamas’s October 7 attack, many have sought refuge in school buildings including the one hit on Saturday. The Health Ministry reported “30 martyrs and more than 100 wounded” in the strike on Khadija school in the central Deir El-Balah area. Zionist military said Palestinian militants were using the compound as a “hiding place”.

Further south, in the Khan Yunis city area, around 170 people have been killed “and hundreds wounded” in an operation since Monday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said. It issued the toll after the military warned of new operations in the Khan Yunis area, where troops had earlier recovered the bodies of five people killed during the October 7 attack. Egyptian state-linked media said Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators are to meet with Zionist negotiators in Rome on Sunday in the latest push for a Gaza truce, which critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have accused him of blocking.

Aid effort ‘destabilized’

Zionists had warned on Monday that its forces would “forcefully operate” in the Khan Yunis area. On Saturday, the military ordered residents from more parts of Khan Yunis “to temporarily evacuate to the adjusted humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi” - the second such change to the declared safe zone within a week. The United Nations said that by Thursday, more than 180,000 Palestinians had already fled fierce fighting there.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, told AFP that many people had been displaced again on Saturday as the operation continued. But with large parts of Khan Yunis “not suitable for living” and “no other options available”, civilians have struggled to find safety, he said. The evacuation orders and “intensified hostilities” have “significantly destabilized aid operations”, the UN said, reporting “dire water, hygiene and sanitation conditions” in the Palestinian territory.

Khan Yunis was left devastated after heavy fighting early in the year but the military withdrew in April saying it had “concluded its mission” there. Now it has returned in force. On Wednesday the military said troops carried out an operation in Khan Yunis and retrieved the five bodies. Zionists said on Friday that its forces had “eliminated approximately 100” militants in Khan Yunis during the week.

The October 7 attack on southern Zionist entity resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians. Zionist retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,258 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths. Its latest toll on Saturday included 83 deaths over the previous 48 hours. In the southern city of Rafah, medics said four people were killed in an air strike on a house. Military said troops had targeted “military infrastructure sites” in the Rafah area.

Al-Qahera News, which has links to Egyptian intelligence, reported on Friday that talks “to reach agreement on a truce in Gaza” would take place in Rome on Sunday. US media outlet Axios separately reported that CIA Director Bill Burns was expected to attend. The latest mediation efforts have focused on a ceasefire and hostage release accompanied by the freeing of Palestinian prisoners. In a meeting in Washington on Thursday, US President Joe Biden called on Netanyahu to “finalize” a deal and “reach a durable end to the war in Gaza”, the White House said.

Mideast escalations

Massive fires and smoke covered the skies in Al-Hudaydah seaport, west Yemen, after Zionist fighter jets struck fuel tanks at the Houthi-controlled port in response to the Iranian-backed militia’s drone attack on Tel Aviv. The raids on July 20 came one day after the Houthis claimed responsibility of the Tel Aviv strike, with Zionist authorities alleging that the Houthis fired more than 200 missiles and drones towards Zionist entity, most of which were intercepted without any casualties.

However, the last drone attack has reportedly killed one settler and injured others. The attacks worsened the humanitarian crisis in Yemen even further that the Houthis have been exacerbating through carrying out terrorist attacks on oil facilities and obstructing maritime trade in the Red Sea, which prompted the Yemeni government to condemn the occupation and its violation of Yemeni sovereignty.

The Yemeni government also demanded the Houthis to cease terrorist activities, which are causing significant harm to the country and its people while also calling on them to listen to the voice of reason. This escalation comes as an extension to the months-long indiscriminate Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden; obstructing one of the most vital and active maritime passageways in the world.

One of the measures to combat these terrorist activities was for the US and UK to lead a military operation by a multinational coalition under the name “Operation Prosperity Guardian”. However, US and UK diverged in their operations by targeting Houthi controlled military sites on Yemeni lands only to incite further escalations with the Houthis.

Maged Al-Madhaji, the Chairperson of Sana’a Center for Strategy Studies, said that Zionists’ response by publicly engaging Yemeni territory will lead to a new level of escalations in the Red Sea. Al-Madhaji stressed that “this is the first Zionist bombing in the Arabian Peninsula and the furthest their fighters ever reached and engaged in this region.” He explained that the next stage could be bleaker. He affirmed that the escalation seriously damaged any chance of “peace in Yemen.” – Agencies