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Louise Thomas

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Israeli airstrikes have hit a school in Gaza where dozens of displaced people were taking shelter with at least 30 people pronounced dead, the Gaza health ministry has said.

Eight women and 15 children are among those killed after a strike hit a girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah, with those injured taken to Al Aqsa Hospital. People have been seen searching the rubble for further victims, with more than 100 wounded.

Israel’s military said that it had targeted a Hamas command and control centre which was being used to store weapons and plan attacks. A statement added that it had warned civilians before the strike.

It comes a day before officials from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy for talks about hostages and a possible ceasefire.

Pictures show classrooms in ruins, while civilians and emergency workers gather the remains of those who were killed.

Um Hasan Ali, a displaced woman living at the school, said it had only been a couple of months since she had returned to Gaza from Egypt with her daughter who had been taken there for medical treatment, and now her daughter had been wounded in the strike and taken to hospital.

Gaza’s health ministry said that at least 11 people had been killed in other strikes on Saturday across the besieged enclave.

Earlier, Israel’s military ordered the evacuation of part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis on Saturday.

The evacuation order was in response to rocket fire that Israel said originated from the area.

The military said it was planning an operation against Hamas militants in the city, including parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in an area where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge throughout the war.

It was the second evacuation order issued in a week for the humanitarian zone that lacks sanitation, aid and medical facilities.

Israel expanded the zone in May to take in people fleeing Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had gathered.

According to Israeli estimates, about 1.8 million Palestinians are currently sheltering there after being uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign. In November, the military said the area could still be struck and that it was “not a safe zone, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.

Further north, Palestinians mourned the deaths of seven killed by Israeli airstrikes overnight on Zawaida, in central Gaza.

Members of two families – parents and their two children as well as a mother and her two children – were wrapped in traditional Islamic white burial shrouds as community members gathered to perform funeral rights.

As men lined up to pray in front of the bodies, weeping friends and neighbours approached individually to pay their final respects.

On Sunday, officials from four countries are due to meet to discuss the situation in Gaza as 115 Israeli hostages continue to be held by Hamas.

CIA director Bill Burns is expected to meet Qatari prime minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel on Sunday, according to officials from the US and Egypt who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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