Middle East Crisis: Israel Presses Offensive in Central Gaza After Deadly Strike on Shelter (2024)

Israel presses on with its central Gaza offensive after a deadly strike on a shelter.

The number and identities of those killed in the strike, in the central Gaza neighborhood of Nuseirat, remained unclear. Gazan health officials have given counts ranging from 41 to 46 people killed. Yasser Khattab, an official overseeing the morgue at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al Balah — where many of those killed were brought — said 18 were children and nine were women.

The Israeli military has released the names of nine militants it said were killed, and said it was not aware of any civilian deaths in the attack.

Neither Israel’s accounts, nor those of Gazan health officials, could be independently confirmed.

On Friday, the Israeli military said its forces were continuing to operate in other areas of central Gaza, including al-Bureij and Deir al Balah, and had killed dozens of militants and destroyed tunnel shafts built by Palestinian armed groups.

Since the war began in October, Hamas and other Palestinian militants in Gaza have used an extensive warren of underground tunnels to fight a guerrilla war, ambushing Israeli forces with booby traps. Israeli troops have returned to areas like al-Bureij, where they had already operated, in an effort to crack down on what the military says is a renewed Hamas insurgency there.

“We’re seeing that Hamas still exists and they still have capabilities above and beneath ground,” Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters on Thursday, describing ongoing attacks by “smaller cells" of militants using rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and booby traps.

Early Thursday morning, Israeli aircraft struck the school compound in Nuseirat. Schools have been closed in the enclave since the beginning of the war, and the building had been converted into a makeshift shelter that was housing roughly 6,000 displaced Palestinians, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which operated the school.

The Israeli military said it had targeted a group of militants affiliated with Hamas and another Iranian-backed armed group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who it claimed had holed up in the complex. In an effort to back up its account, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, late Thursday listed the names of nine militants he said had been killed in the attack and said the Israeli authorities would soon verify the identities of more.

Amid conflicting information over the death toll and the identities of the victims, Mr. Khattab, the morgue official, said Al-Aqsa hospital had a system designed to document mass casualty events as accurately as possible despite the severe challenges of the war.

As soon as word of a major strike reached the facility, a designated official prepared to receive ambulances arriving from the area and began registering the dead and wounded, he said. “We look for any marker that would help us identify the person,” said Mr. Khattab, adding that officials often had to collect multiple body parts into a single bag.

Gazan hospitals have often been overwhelmed by the numbers of dead and wounded, as well as occasional telecommunications blackouts. A New York Times reporter who visited Al-Aqsa hospital on Thursday after the strike saw medics pushing through crowds of people to reach operating rooms. Karin Huster, a medical coordinator with the aid group Doctors Without Borders who has been working at the hospital, said that most of the patients she had seen in the past few days were women and children.

Pleas for help echo through a hospital after a deadly Israeli attack.

Early on Thursday, Israeli airstrikes hit the school complex, killing dozens of people — among them at least nine militants, the Israeli military said.

Over the course of the day, corpses and mangled limbs recovered from the rubble were wrapped in blankets, stacked in truck beds and driven to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last major medical facility still operating in central Gaza.

Israel’s military described the airstrike as painstakingly planned. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israeli forces had tracked the militants in the school-turned-shelter for three days before opening fire.

“The Israeli military and the Shin Bet found a solution to separate the terrorists from those seeking shelter,” he said.

But accounts from both local and foreign medics, and a visit to the hospital by The New York Times on Thursday afternoon, made clear that civilians died, too.

Outside the hospital morgue, crowds gathered to weep and pray over the dead. Hospital corridors were crowded with people pleading for help, or at least a little comfort.

A young girl with a bloodied leg screamed, “Mama! Mama!”, as her sobbing mother followed her through the hospital corridors.

The precise toll could not be verified, but the Gaza Health Ministry said that of the roughly 40 people killed in the attack, 14 were children and nine were women. Later in the day, The Associated Press reported different numbers, saying at least 33 people died, including three women and nine children, citing the hospital morgue.

Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has become a symbol not just of the heavy loss of life in central Gaza, but also of the increasing sense of desperation among Gazans struggling to find a place there that is still safe.

In the past few weeks, the region has swelled with people fleeing another Israeli offensive, this one in the southern city of Rafah. Before that offensive began, Rafah was the main place of refuge for civilians, at one point holding more than half the population of the Gaza Strip.

Then on Wednesday, Israel announced that it had started a new operation against Hamas militants in central Gaza — the very place where many Gazans who had fled Rafah had ended up.

The strike on the school complex came early the next day, around 2 a.m. It hit a building at a complex run by UNRWA, the main U.N. Palestinian aid agency in Gaza.

Since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began in October, in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on Israel, such schools have been used to shelter Gazans forced from their homes by the fighting. Israel says Hamas hides its forces in civilian settings like schools or hospitals, an accusation the group denies.

In the past two days of the new military campaign, Al Aqsa took in 140 dead and hundreds of wounded, health workers said.

“It’s complete chaos, because we have mass casualty after mass casualty, but less and less medical supplies to treat them,” said Karin Huster, a nurse with the international aid group Doctors Without Borders who has been working as a medical coordinator at the hospital.

During the visit to Al Aqsa by The Times, medics could be seen pushing through crowds of panicked people to try to reach operating rooms, delayed by the sheer mass of people. Amid the confusion, Ms. Huster said, medics sometimes brought mortally wounded people into operating rooms, wasting vital time for those who still had a chance at survival.

Ms. Huster said that the majority of people she had seen in the past few days were women and children.

By early afternoon Thursday, after burying a friend he pulled from the rubble of the school complex, Mr. Abu Ammar found himself once again at the hospital.

This time, he was accompanied by the friend’s brother, whom he was trying to cram into a hallway near the entrance. The brother’s face was cut by shrapnel, and he had a deep gash in his right leg.

But he was not the only one desperate for help.

All around them were wounded people, some lying in their own blood on the floor, others on beds calling for help. A man whose face was blackened with burns and dust from the explosion that morning begged two relatives who were with him to fan his face with a piece of cardboard they were waving over him.

The scenes among the dead in the morgue were almost as chaotic as those among the living. Bodies lay everywhere, as relatives crowded in, weeping and screaming over them. The stench of blood was overpowering.

Crowds outside the morgue ebbed and flowed as bodies wrapped in blankets — shrouds were in short supply — were lifted onto pickup trucks to be taken for burial. Relatives and friends lined up to pray before the dead were driven away. Even passers-by on the street stopped to join in.

“When is it too much?” Ms. Huster said. “I don’t know anymore how I can phrase this so that it shocks people. Where has humanity gone wrong?”

A pier for aid shipments, damaged in rough seas, has been restored to the Gaza shore, the U.S. says.

Admiral Cooper said that aid would begin to flow through the pier again “in the coming days.”

He said that military engineers “provided all the necessary support to ensure the safe and placement of the pier to the beach,” adding: “The policy of no U.S. boots on the ground does remain in effect.” White House policy does not allow U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza.

Once the aid resumes, Admiral Cooper estimated, about one million pounds of goods would enter Gaza through the pier over each two-day period.

In early March, President Biden surprised the Pentagon by announcing that the U.S. military would build a pier for Gaza.

In the days after it became operational on May 17, trucks were looted as they made their way to a warehouse, forcing the U.N. World Food Program to suspend operations. After officials beefed up security, the weather turned bad. American officials had been hoping that the sea surges would not start until later in the summer.

The situation in Gaza remains dire. Health officials say more than 36,000 people have been killed; many people have been displaced; and the United Nations has warned that famine is looming.

Netanyahu threatened ‘very intense action’ at the Lebanon border. What is happening there?

Why are the two sides fighting?

Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese militia and political movement, launched attacks into Israel on Oct. 8, answering calls by Hamas to open a second front a day after the Palestinian armed group that rules Gaza led a deadly assault on Israel. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that his group is trying to pin Israel’s troops along the border and limit its capacity to attack Hamas in Gaza.

Hezbollah’s conflict with Israel goes back decades. Israel has invaded Lebanon three times in the last 50 years, most recently in 2006, when the two sides fought a monthlong war that killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and more than 150 in Israel, mostly soldiers. The current round of fighting marks the most serious escalation since then.

What is the latest?

Israel in February launched its deepest strikes into Lebanon in years, hitting the Bekaa Valley in response to a surface-to-air missile attack that downed an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon.

In April, Hezbollah launched a drone and missile attack on northern Israel that wounded 14 soldiers, one of whom died. Later that month, the group claimed to have launched its deepest attack in Israel since October, targeting a barracks north of the city of Acre with drones.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah for the first time began targeting Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome missile defense system.

This week, a Hezbollah rocket attack caused wildfires to break out in northern Israel, prompting Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday to issue a threat of “very intense action” to “restore security to the north.”

What is the toll of the clashes so far?

Strikes across the border have caused casualties on both sides. In Lebanon, Hezbollah says that more than 300 fighters have been killed, while the United Nations says that around 80 civilians have died. In Israel, the authorities say that 19 security personnel and at least eight civilians have been killed.

Some senior Hezbollah and Hamas officials have also been assassinated in Lebanon. A top Hamas official, Saleh al-Arouri, died in a suspected Israeli strike outside Beirut in January. A commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force was killed in southern Lebanon the same month.

The Israel authorities have ordered the evacuation of 60,000 civilians from border areas. On the Lebanon side, over 90,000 people have fled their homes.

Could the clashes lead to a full-scale war?

Despite the escalation, analysts say that both sides realize a full-scale war would pose significant risks.

Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly said he is determined to push Hezbollah back from the border and allow displaced Israelis to return home, a key domestic political issue. Analysts say pressure from his far-right coalition allies could prompt him to launch a wider attack.

But with thousands of fighters and a vast arsenal of rockets, Hezbollah is capable of hitting infrastructure and cities across Israel, and any invasion of Lebanon would likely prove costly for Israeli forces as they continue to battle Hamas in Gaza.

A war would also devastate Lebanon, which is grappling with political deadlock and the effects of a historic economic collapse. During the 2006 war, Israeli strikes flattened large areas of Beirut and displaced nearly one million people.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said this week that the armed group was not seeking to widen the conflict, but would wage war if attacked. The Biden administration has sought since Oct. 7 to prevent a wider regional war and to bring the two sides to the table, but Hezbollah says it will not negotiate until the war in Gaza ends.

Netanyahu is set to address Congress on July 24.

But in a separate statement that hinted at the deep political divides over Mr. Netanyahu and Israel’s war in Gaza, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said he harbored “clear and profound disagreements with the prime minister, which I have voiced both privately and publicly and will continue to do so.” He said he nevertheless had joined the request for Mr. Netanyahu to address Congress because “America’s relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister.”

Earlier this year, Mr. Schumer called for Mr. Netanyahu to step down and for Israel to hold new elections.

The bipartisan invitation to Mr. Netanyahu, issued last month by the top four congressional leaders with no date attached, masked a fraught behind-the-scenes debate over receiving him. The need for separate statements from the leaders of the two parties explaining their different rationales for extending the invitation underscored those tensions.

Some progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont have already promised to boycott the speech, calling Mr. Netanyahu a “war criminal” for his tactics in the war against Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza and caused a humanitarian disaster.

Republicans, in contrast, are eager to hug Mr. Netanyahu close and unequivocally back his policies. Mr. Johnson has been the driving force behind the invitation.

“I am very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel before both houses of Congress and to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement accepting the invitation.

In the court of public opinion, both sides make their case for following international law.

The most recent instance came when the Israeli military on Thursday struck a former United Nations school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, where civilians were sheltering. The strike killed dozens, including women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Hamas called it “a crime committed with premeditation,” in a statement on social media.

An Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the operation was limited and aimed precisely at combatants. He said Israel targeted three specific classrooms in the school that were being used by terrorists, including some involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel led by Hamas, and noted that the military waited for days before striking to try to limit civilian casualties.

The Israeli army late Thursday released the names of nine members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad that it said were killed in the strike, adding that it was working on verifying others. Admiral Hagari accused Hamas of violating international law by using civilians as shields and hiding in schools and hospitals, and he emphasized Israel’s adherence to international law.

The main legal considerations when assessing a military’s conduct in conflict are “distinction” and “proportionality,” according to Gary D. Solis, a retired Marine and Marine judge advocate, and author of “The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War.”

International humanitarian law began developing in the 19th century with a treaty on prisoners of war that paved the path for the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and subsequent agreements governing conduct in conflict. These were widely adopted, and they try to ensure minimal civilian casualties and damage. The principles governing conduct, like distinction and proportionality, have developed through court cases and become customary law, but they are complicated and subject to interpretation, Mr. Solis said.

“Distinction” simply requires soldiers to distinguish between combatants and noncombatants and to target only fighters. “But that doesn’t say how you apply it,” Mr. Solis said. “It’s not a black and white conclusion. You don’t have bright line distinctions.”

“Proportionality” is similarly complex. “It’s easier to state than understand,” Mr. Solis said. This principle provides that combatants must act proportionally, meaning that civilian deaths and damage can’t exceed the military advantage of an operation.

What is an acceptable number of deaths and damage, and what is excessive? What is the right amount of “military advantage?” There is no single answer, Mr. Solis said. Speaking generally, he said, an army cannot level a town to kill 10 enemy soldiers, but perhaps it could strike a single house for that many.

“Every case has to be examined on its own merits,” Mr. Solis counseled. “Don’t be dismayed if you can’t put your finger on it, because by their very nature the principles are flexible, not fixed.”

Video analysis shows Israel’s strike used a bomb that appeared to be U.S.-made.

The school, located in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, was being used as a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians. The Israeli military said it had targeted classrooms that were occupied by Palestinian militants, though it did not provide evidence for this claim.

A video of munitions debris, filmed by the Palestinian journalist Emad Abu Shawiesh, shows remnants of a GBU-39 bomb, which is designed and manufactured by Boeing. The use of this weapon in the strike was first reported by CNN.

The footage was uploaded to Instagram shortly after 4 a.m. in Gaza on Thursday, about two and a half hours after the strike was reported on Telegram, a messaging app. The Times, using details seen in videos, confirmed the weapon debris was filmed at the U.N. school.

Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician, identified the part of the weapon seen in the footage as the nose of a GBU-39. “This distinct nose is unique to the GBU-39 munition series, and, due to its solid construction, it can survive the blast intact,” he said.

The holes visible across several floors of the U.N. compound also suggest the use of a smaller precision-guided munition like the GBU-39, Mr. Ball added.

The school was previously attacked on May 14, when Israel said that it had killed 15 militants there; it is possible that some of the damage or even the GBU-39 nose tip seen on Thursday could have been left by that strike. But multiple videos filmed in the aftermath of the strike showed mattresses, clothes and cans of food covered in rubble near the strike zone in one of the classrooms, indicating the damage was new. In one of these videos, a man can be seen recovering body parts of those who were killed and holding up a severed finger to the camera.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets had targeted three classrooms in a school building that held 20 to 30 Palestinian militants affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militia also backed by Iran. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, claimed the militants had used the compound to plan attacks on Israeli forces, although he did not provide specific examples.

The compound that was hit had been operated by UNRWA, the main U.N. body that aids Palestinians in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini, the director of UNRWA, wrote on social media that 6,000 Palestinians had been sheltering in the school complex.

Khalil Daqran, a spokesman for Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah, said the bodies of at least 40 people killed in the attack had been brought to the hospital. At least some of the victims were women, children and older people, he added, although he declined to provide a precise figure.

Colonel Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, said he was “not aware of any civilian casualties” as a result of the strike.

U.S. officials have been encouraging the Israeli military for months to use GBU-39s, which weigh at least 250 pounds, rather than larger 2,000-pound bombs because they are generally more precise. But this is the second time in less than two weeks that dozens of Palestinians have been killed by this specific type of bomb. On May 26, 45 people were killed in another camp for displaced people, also by GBU-39 bombs.

Wes Bryant, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant and targeting expert who served on a task force critical of Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza, told The Times that the precision and low-collateral intent of these bombs were undermined if not used correctly.

“While they’re using smaller bombs, they’re still deliberately targeting where they know there are civilians,” Mr. Bryant said. “The only thing they’ve done in going down from 2,000-pound bombs to 250-pound bombs is killing a few less civilians.”

Nader Ibrahim contributed reporting. Ainara Tiefenthäler contributed video production.