Israel’s military struck a school in Gaza on June 6, which it said was a stronghold of the Hamas terrorist group with up to 30 Hamas fighters inside.
The director of the Hamas-run media office in Gaza rejected Israel’s claims that the U.N. school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, had hidden a Hamas command post. He alleged the strike killed more than two dozen civilians seeking shelter.
According to Israel’s military, all necessary steps had been taken to reduce the risk of civilian casualties prior to the strike.
“We’re very confident in the intelligence,” military spokesperson Lt Col. Peter Lerner said, accusing Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters of deliberately using U.N. facilities as operational bases.
“I’m not aware of any civilian casualties and I’d be very, very cautious of accepting anything that Hamas puts out,” he added.
The strike followed an announcement by Israel that it would initiate a new military campaign in central Gaza aimed at targeting Hamas terrorists relying on hit-and-run insurgency tactics.
Ceasefire Talks
Israel has stood firm in saying that fighting will continue during ceasefire talks.
Last week’s truce proposal by President Joe Biden has hit a dead end after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh responded by saying that any ceasefire plan would have to involve a complete and permanent end to the Gaza war, including withdrawal of all Israeli troops.
Ceasefire talks have been unsuccessful since a brief week-long truce in November. The terrorist group has repeatedly demanded an end to the fighting and withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has offered only temporary pauses and vowed to continue fighting until the terrorist group is destroyed.
Meanwhile, Washington has been pushing for a resolution on the ceasefire talks. On June 5, CIA director William Burns met with senior officials from mediators Qatar and Egypt in Doha for discussions on the proposal.
However, despite repeated claims by President Biden that a ceasefire was near, no agreement has yet come to fruition.
The Gaza conflict began with Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,200 people and saw the terrorist group take nearly 240 hostages. The war has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Gazans, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry. They don’t differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Since the week-long truce last November, around half of the hostages have been freed. It is currently still unclear how many of the remaining hostages are still alive.
Prior to the conflict, Hamas had around 20,000–25,000 terrorist fighters, according to U.S. estimates. Israel has reported a loss of around 300 troops since the conflict started.
At the same time, tensions between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group, which operates out of Lebanon, remain high.
Despite attributing the ceasefire proposal by President Biden as an Israeli initiative, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “the claims that we have agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met are incorrect.” The conditions refer to the destruction of Hamas and the freeing of all the hostages.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant rejected any possibility of a halt to Israel’s offensive amid ceasefire negotiations.
“Any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted only under fire,” he said in remarks carried by Israeli media.
Reuters contributed to this report.