An Israeli attack on a Gazan girls’ school in the day of an Israeli strike in Golan Heights killed seven people, according to NPR analyst Anas Baba

A rocket slammed into a sports complex filled with children playing soccer in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights region, on the same day that an Israeli strike in Gaza killed dozens of people.

At least seven children and seven women were among the dead taken from the girls’ school in Deir al-Balah to Al Aqsa Hospital. Israel’s military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against Israeli troops and develop and store “large quantities of weapons.” Hamas in a statement called the military’s claim false.

The school was located in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, where many Palestinians have fled following evacuation orders the Israeli military has issued for regions farther south in Gaza.

Blood was everywhere in the minutes that followed the strike, with pieces of flesh visible on the stairs and handicapped residents trying to flee, according to NPR reporter Anas Baba, who witnessed the immediate aftermath.

A video captured by Baba showed wounded children being taken away on carts and the bodies being built from pieces of debris. Baba found many of the young children in the hallways lined with bodies.

Israeli Defense of Hezbollah, the Military and the Druze: Israeli Response to the Hamas IRAS Attack on the Gaza School Complex

The Israeli military said the school compound was being used as a hiding place by Hamas to attack Israeli units. The Israeli military said that they had taken numerous steps to make sure that the risk of harming civilians was mitigated.

Earlier Saturday, Israel had issued fresh evacuation orders in southern Gaza, including neighborhoods in Khan Younis and Rafah, as the Israeli military said it was preparing to respond to rocket fire into Israel perpetrated by Hamas.

Later Saturday, the Israeli ambulance service said a rocket launched from southern Lebanon killed 11 children, with around 30 injured, several of those very seriously.

The Israeli military says the rocket was launched from a village in southern Lebanon called Chebaa, and apportioned blame for the deaths to Hezbollah. The group, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, has denied responsibility.

The attack on the Israeli military was the most deadly since the start of the war in Gaza.

The incident has prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was briefed on the situation while in Washington, D.C., to return to Israel from the U.S. earlier than planned. He will convene a cabinet meeting of his top political allies and security officials upon his return.

Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying the nation of Israel embraced the children’s families and the Druze community in its difficult hour.

After months of skirmishes, alongside artillery, airstrikes and rocket attacks that have been traded back and forth across Israel’s border with Lebanon, many analysts and regional leaders have expressed concerns about a significant military escalation between Hezbollah and the Israel military.

Despite a public message from Hezbollah in which it categorically denied involvement, saying the group had “absolutely nothing to do with the incident,” Netanyahu warned in his office statement that, “the State of Israel will not let this pass in silence. We won’t overlook this.

The Lebanese parliamentary speaker said Hezbollah’s denial of its involvement confirmed its commitment to avoiding violence against civilians, and proved Lebanon was not responsible.

The government of Lebanon condemns all acts of violence and attacks against civilians, and says the targeting of civilians is a violation of international law.

Israel’s attack on a school: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States as a “green light” to continue the Israeli offensive

The dead toddler was in an ambulance and bodies were covered with blankets. Inside the school, shattered walls gaped and classrooms were in ruins. People scoured rubble for people who may have died in it.

Officials from the U.S., Egypt, Qatar and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy on Sunday to discuss ongoing cease-fire negotiations. 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, according to officials from the U.S. and Egypt who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the plans.

The basic framework for a three-phase deal is believed to have been agreed on by Israel and Hamas. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech to the U.S. Congress vowed to press ahead with the war until Israel achieves “total victory.”

After the Israeli strike on the school, Palestinian officials condemned the speech. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that Netanyahu’s reception from supporters in the U.S. constituted a “green light” to continue Israel’s offensive.

“Every time the occupation bombs a school that shelters displaced persons, we see only some condemnations and denunciations that will not force the occupation to stop its bloody aggression,” he said.

There is a crowded tent camp located near the city in an area where the military has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge.

The health centers in Gaza were forced to stop providing care due to issues such as waste and shortages of supplies.

Source: At least 30 dead in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike hits a school used as a shelter

The Gazans are not safe: Israeli air and ground bombs have killed at least 115 people in the last three months of the Gaza war

According to Israeli estimates, about 1.8 million Palestinians shelter in the zone after being uprooted multiple times 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.

The agency’s director of communications said these are forced displacement orders. “What happens is when people have these orders, they have very little time to move.”

Palestinians mourned the seven killed by the Israeli bombs on Zawaida in central Gaza. Parents and their children and a mother and her two children were wrapped in white shrouds as friends and neighbors cried.

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 17-year-old was killed and nine other people wounded after an Israeli drone strike in Balata camp in Nablus. The Israeli military said one of its aircraft attacked from the air as part of its activity in Nablus.

Most of the people who died in the attack on south Israel were civilians, but about 250 hostages were taken by Hamas. Israeli authorities estimate that about 115 people are still in Gaza and around a third of them are dead.