Shawdesh Desk:

Gaza’s civil defence agency said a series of Israeli strikes on Thursday killed at least 30 Palestinians, with the Israeli military confirming it targeted Hamas members in one attack.

The violence in the Gaza Strip continues to rock the coastal territory more than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, even as international mediators work to negotiate a ceasefire.

At least 13 people, including women and children, were killed when strikes hit two schools in eastern Gaza City, according to civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

‘There are at least 13 martyrs, including children and women, as a result of the occupation targeting the Shabaan al-Rayes school and Al-Karama school in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City,’ Bassal said.

He added that at least 30 others were wounded.

Hundreds of Palestinians displaced by the war were in the two schools when the strikes occurred.

‘The occupation continues its policy of targeting displaced people and shelters housing them,’ Bassal said.

The military said it had conducted a ‘precise strike on terrorists’ operating in the compounds of the schools located in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood.

In a separate strike, another 13 people were killed when an Israeli warplane targeted a group of Palestinians filling water in Al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City, said Bassal.

Four additional fatalities were reported in another strike on a house, also in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

The military had no immediate response on the strikes on the house and in Al-Shati camp.

Amid the on-going violence, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar are engaged in renewed negotiations to halt the war and secure the release of dozens of hostages still held by militants in Gaza.

On Tuesday, the United States expressed ‘cautious optimism’ about the prospects of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.

The war was sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials reported on Friday that Israeli settlers had set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank, an act Israeli police said was under investigation.

According to Abdallah Kamil, the governor of Salfit, the attack targeted the Bir al-Walidain mosque in the village of Marda.

‘A group of settlers carried out an attack early this morning by setting fire to the mosque,’ Kamil said in a statement.

In addition to the arson, the settlers vandalised the mosque’s walls with ‘racist graffiti’ in Hebrew, he said.

Photographs shared on social media showed slogans spray-painted in black including ‘Death to Arabs’.

Villagers of Marda confirmed the details, with one resident telling AFP: ‘They set fire to the entrance of the mosque and wrote Hebrew slogans on its walls.’

Another resident said the fire was extinguished before it could engulf the entire structure.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw villagers gathering at the mosque to assess the extent of the damage.

Governor Kamil alleged that settlers had previously entered the village ‘under the protection of the Israeli army’, and that similar acts of vandalism and graffiti had been reported in nearby areas.

The Palestinian foreign ministry in Ramallah condemned the incident, calling it a ‘blatant act of racism’ and a reflection of the ‘ widespread incitement campaigns against our people carried out by elements of the extremist right-wing ruling government’ of Israel.

Israeli police and the domestic Shin Bet security agency described the incident as a matter of ‘great severity’.

They said they would ‘act decisively to ensure accountability for those responsible’, adding an investigation was underway, with authorities gathering testimony and evidence from the scene.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has intensified since the war in Gaza began on October 7 last year following Hamas’s attack on Israel.

Since the start of the war, at least 803 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

In the same period, Palestinian attacks have claimed the lives of at least 24 Israelis in the West Bank, based on Israeli official data.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.