Palestinians reported that a school and Gaza’s largest hospital compound was struck by a lethal attack on Friday, November 10, with medical facilities, housing tens of thousands, becoming embroiled in intense clashes between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinians said deadly strikes on Friday hit hospitals and a school where desperate civilians in Gaza City have sought refuge from intense combat that has sent thousands of others fleeing.

The Israeli army has repeatedly accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of using hospitals, particularly Al-Shifa, to coordinate their attacks and also as hideouts for its commanders. Hamas authorities deny the accusations.

Al-Shifa’s director and Gaza’s Hamas government, which reported a death toll of 13, blamed Israeli forces for a strike on the hospital.

The hospital received the bodies of another 50 people killed in a strike on  Gaza City’s Al-Buraq school, the Al-Shifa director said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli snipers had also shot at Al-Quds hospital, killing at least one person. The media could not immediately confirm the tolls.

Israeli forces would “kill” Hamas militants if they saw them “firing from hospitals”, military spokesman Richard Hecht said.

On Thursday, Israel reported heavy fighting near the hospital, saying that it had killed dozens of militants and destroyed tunnels that are key to Hamas’s capacity to fight.

The Israeli army has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals, particularly Al-Shifa, as hideouts for its commanders and to coordinate their attacks against the army. Hamas authorities deny the accusations.

Witnesses told journalists that hundreds of people sheltering at Gaza City’s Al-Rantisi hospital fled on instruction from the Israeli military, which was surrounding it with armored vehicles.

“Enough destruction, there’s nothing left. We need a truce to see what will later happen to us, a truce to bring medicine or aid to the hospitals,” said Mohammed Khader, who was displaced in Rafah.

“Those hospitals are now full of displaced people and not only injured and martyrs,” he added.

Khalil Wakim, with AFP