Israel issues more evacuation orders in Gaza after a deadly airstrike

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Cease-fire talks are expected to resume later this week between Hamas and Israel to find a way to end the war in Gaza.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Which is another way of saying that today, there is no cease-fire, though the United States and much of the world have called for one. Hamas continues fighting under its surviving leader Yahya Sinwar. Israel has continued strikes in Gaza and has instructed Palestinians to move out of the way yet again.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi joins us now from Tel Aviv. The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 90 Palestinians were killed over the last few days. What happened?

HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: So it was actually an early morning strike on Saturday on the Al-Tabieen school compound that was sheltering thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City, which is in the north. It's also one of the worst Israeli attacks since the beginning of the war in October. There was a mosque on site, also, which was sheltering Palestinians, and some of them were performing morning prayers. Gaza civil defense described a gruesome picture - children, missing limbs, burned bodies, bodies that were unrecognizable, and many women and elderly Palestinians were among the dead. Now, the U.N. has called the Israeli bombing of schools, which many of are shelters, as systemic at this point, and they say more than 450 schools out of the 564 in Gaza have been hit or damaged as of the beginning of this July.

MARTÍNEZ: What did the Israeli military say about the strike? And what's the reaction been around the world?

AL-SHALCHI: So the Israeli military named 19 militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad that they said were killed in the school strike. It said that the militant groups were using the school as an operation center. Both of those groups have denied. Vice President Kamala Haras condemned the strike, saying that, quote, "far too many civilians" had been killed. She said that while Israel had a right to go after Hamas, it also had the responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. And the Israeli military is pushing more aggressively into towns and cities in Gaza. That means more evacuation orders have been issued for Palestinians.

AL-SHALCHI: That's right. So the Israeli military told thousands of Palestinians in southern Gaza around the city of Khan Younis, which is Gaza's second largest city, to start making their way out of the area. The new order came by way of leaflets dropped from the sky. And for many of the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in Gaza, this isn't their first, second or even third evacuation order. So it's been an endless cycle of finding shelter, setting up camp, then being ordered to leave because of the fighting. And many say, you know, with these constant strikes and incursions, there's actually nowhere to go that is safe. And the images coming out of Gaza are desperate, exhausted families, marching carrying blankets over their heads, children on donkey carts. The U.N. says that Gaza has just become unlivable with outbreak of disease and garbage piled everywhere.

MARTÍNEZ: What's happening with cease-fire talks?

AL-SHALCHI: So the killing of a top Hezbollah leader by the Israeli military, and then the assassination of Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh stalled the talks in the past couple of weeks. And then the region has been holding its breath to see if Iran will retaliate for Haniyeh's killing, which happened in Tehran. Last week, President Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar put out a letter saying that talks are going to resume this Thursday, and they sounded pretty impatient, saying they wanted to present a, quote, "final cease-fire proposal to end the war." Israel said it would send a delegation to the meeting, but after the strike yesterday, Hamas put out a statement, hinting that they actually may not attend the meeting. They told mediators to just implement the plan that they've already been discussing for weeks instead of creating new talks.

MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi. Thank you very much.

AL-SHALCHI: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.