Ten have been reported dead after an Israeli attack on a Gaza municipal building

An Israeli airstrike on a municipal building in the Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah on Saturday killed at least ten people, including the city’s mayor, according to a report by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

A large number of displaced people took shelter in this building, according to the Wafa report.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said shortly afterwards that the aim of the strike was to kill the city’s mayor, who the IDF suspected was also part of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic organization, Hamas.

The IDF said it supports plans to fight Hamas, but did not provide further details on the allegations.

Another Israeli attack on Gaza

Other Israeli strikes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip also killed several more people on Saturday, including at least seven people in a strike on the Al-Majida Wasila School building in Gaza City, according to Wafa.

The news agency said that the building was also used to house people displaced by the conflict.

The IDF said it was investigating the report.

The IDF, however, also confirmed a strike on a separate school complex near Gaza City on Saturday that was allegedly being used as a Hamas command post.

The Israeli Air Force “conducted a direct strike against Hamas terrorists,” the IDF said in a post on the Telegram channel. It said “terrorists” were planning to attack Israel and noted that the group had “entered the compound that once served as the ‘Yaffa’ school in Gaza City.”

The Israeli army has repeatedly attacked school buildings during its campaign in Gaza, accusing the Palestinian group Hamas of establishing control centers inside the buildings.

The IDF’s claims could not be independently verified.

The IDF denied that the army was taking measures to reduce the risk to civilians, but did not provide details about casualties. Wafa reported that two people died and others were injured.

Dozens have been killed in the last 24 hours

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, 55 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks within 24 hours.

More than 44,900 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began 14 months ago. The department’s statistics do not distinguish between civilians and fighters, although most of those reported to have been killed were women and children. Reports of injuries cannot yet be independently verified.

Israel launched a major offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to an unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel led by Hamas. On October 7, attackers from Hamas and other groups killed more than 1,200 and took about 250 hostages.

The IDF on Saturday also said that the Israeli military attacked weapons depots and people suspected of being involved in a Hamas rocket attack in southern Israel, launched in Gaza on Friday evening.

An “active international assistance zone” is located about 50 meters from the launch site of the Israeli guided missiles on Saturday, the IDF wrote on X.

It could not independently verify the claims.

The PA is moving against Hamas in the West Bank

In the West Bank occupied by Israel, meanwhile, security forces from the Palestinian Authority (PA) advanced against the organization Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Jenin in an operation that began on Saturday morning and continued throughout the day.

PIJ reported that one of its leaders was killed. There was no confirmation from the PA.

This operation in the northern West Bank city is aimed at freeing Jenin from “lawless activities,” said a Wafa spokesperson. PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa was expected to visit.

Observers believe the PA fears an armed uprising in the West Bank that could topple the group from power, as happened in the Gaza Strip in 2007 after Hamas won parliamentary elections the previous year.

Since then, the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has retained only limited control over the occupied West Bank, as Israeli security forces repeatedly carry out their duties.

Earlier in the week, PA security forces were operating in Jenin against Hamas and the PIJ, both of which accuse the PA of collaborating with Israel.