24 Dead in Israeli Airstrike on Deir al-Balah in Central Gaza Targeted Mosque Was Sheltering Displaced Persons

The Gaza Government Media Office reported that at least 24 people were killed, and 93 others were injured in Israeli airstrikes on a mosque and school sheltering hundreds of displaced persons in the Palestinian enclave early Sunday.

The attack on the mosque and school, located near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, occurred a day before the anniversary of Israel’s war against Hamas.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it had “carried out a precision strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center that was part of a building that used to be the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in the Deir al-Balah area,” according to Reuters.

Witnesses reported that the death toll could rise as the mosque was being used as a shelter for displaced persons.

The latest round of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict erupted when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.

Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza has resulted in nearly 42,000 Palestinian deaths, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, and displaced almost the entire population of 2.3 million people.