At least nine people, including three children and two women, were killed, and some others were injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of the Musa bin Nusayr School on Sunday, which houses displaced people in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, Xinhua news agency reported quoting WAFA.
Four more people were killed when the Israeli army bombed a vehicle on the Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, it added.
Five citizens, including four children, were killed on Sunday morning in Israel's shelling of the Jabalia town, north of Gaza City, WAFA said in a separate report.
In the southern Gaza Strip, two people were killed when the Israeli army bombed their apartment west of Khan Yunis, and three others died in the Israeli bombing of the city of Rafah, WAFA said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that with the direction of intelligence, the air force conducted a "precise strike" on Hamas militants who were operating inside a command-and-control center in the Gaza Strip.
The command-and-control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Musa bin Nusayr School, was used by the militants to plan and execute attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel, it added.
Israel has been on a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
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Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday killed at least 22 people, including five children, Palestinian medical officials said.
Also on Sunday, Israeli authorities allowed Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, to enter Gaza and celebrate a pre-Christmas Mass with members of the territory’s small Christian community.
A strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City killed at least eight people, including three children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants sheltering there.
A strike on a home in the central city of Deir al-Balah late Saturday killed at least eight people, including three women and two children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. Another six people were killed in separate strikes on Sunday, according to local hospitals.
Dozens of worshippers gathered in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City as Pizzaballa and other clergy celebrated Mass. A Christmas tree was decorated with golden ornaments and twinkling white lights, and altar boys wearing red and white robes held candles.
The rare visit to Gaza by the Latin Patriarch came a day after Pope Francis had again criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza. Francis said Saturday that his envoy had been unable to enter the territory because of Israeli bombing.
“Yesterday children have been bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” Francis said during his annual Christmas greetings at the Vatican.
The pope recently called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, a conclusion later reached by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The International Court of Justice is investigating genocide allegations brought against Israel by South Africa
