GAZA: Palestinian rescuers said an Israeli strike at dawn on Monday killed 25 people at a Gaza City school, as Israel presses ahead with what it has described as a renewed push to destroy Hamas.

A separate strike on a home killed 15 members of the same family, including five women and two children, according to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which received the bodies. The strike on the school in northern Gaza also wounded more than 55 people, said Fahmy Awad, head of the ministry’s emergency service. He said a father and his five children were among the dead.

Awad said the school was hit three times while people slept, setting their belongings ablaze. Footage circulating online showed rescuers struggling to extinguish fires and recovering charred remains.

The military said it targeted a militant command and control center inside the school that Hamas and Islamic Jihad used to gather intelligence for attacks. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in residential areas.

The intensified fighting has drawn condemnation from the international community as an aid blockade lasting almost three months has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory.

Spain’s foreign minister on Sunday called for sanctions on Israel as European and Arab nations gathered in Madrid.
The talks aimed to stop Israel’s “inhumane” and “senseless” war in Gaza, Jose Manuel Albares told reporters before the meeting opened.

Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza “massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel”, he added, describing the territory as humanity’s “open wound”.