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Israel has intensified its bombardment of Gaza, hitting two schools, killing at least 40 people and ordering sweeping evacuations.
It comes as its allies brace for Iran and Hezbollah to retaliate over the killing of two top commanders in Tehran and Beirut.
World leaders have been urging restraint in a bid to avert potential escalation into a regional war after Israel assassinated Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last week, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed a day later in Tehran.
Israel has already vowed to kill Haniyeh’s hardliner replacement Yahya Sinwar – an architect of the 7 October attacks that sparked the war in Gaza – and flew warplanes low over Beirut on Tuesday as Hezbollah mourned their slain commander.
With all eyes on how they will retaliate, CNN cited two sources with knowledge of intelligence on the matter as saying that the Lebanese militant group is moving more quickly than Iran in planning a strike – and could be poised to attack Israel independently of its more powerful ally.
Yemen’s Houthis – who, after a brief pause, have resumed their attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in a stated show of support for Palestine – also said they would coordinate with other members of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” in any joint operation to respond to Israel’s attacks.
Any decision to respond will be made by the axis as a whole, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi insisted, referring to groups aligned with Tehran such as Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Israel, meanwhile, was reported by Axios to have warned Washington privately that it would respond disproportionately to any civilian casualties as a result of Hezbollah’s attack – after Lebanese outlet Al-Akhbar suggested the militants could target Tel Aviv and that “civilians might be harmed on the margins”.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has also warned Iran against any retaliation that harms civilians, via his former defence secretary Sergei Shoigu, who visited Tehran this week, senior Iranian sources said.
Israel stepped up its airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hitting a cluster of houses in the Al-Bureij camp and leaving least 15 people dead. Four people were also killed in the nearby Al-Nuseirat camp, medics reported.
Aircraft also bombed a house in the heart of Gaza City in the north killing five Palestinians, while another airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis is believed to have killed one person and wounded others.
Israel was reported to have issued yet another mass evacuation order covering large areas in and around Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, which was devastated by air and ground attacks earlier this year. Israel warned its forces would soon operate in the affected areas in response to Palestinian rocket fire.
Residents said dozens of families had begun to leave their homes and head west towards Al-Mawasi, a humanitarian-designated area but one that is overcrowded by displaced families from across Gaza.
Israel’s military said it had struck dozens of military targets across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including rocket launching pads – as the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad reported firing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating across Gaza.
Later on Thursday, a further 15 people were killed and 30 injured in Israeli bombings of two schools east of Gaza City, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas command and control centres embedded in the Abdel-Fattah Hamouda and Al-Zahra schools in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, where it accused Hamas of exploiting civilians for military purposes – which Hamas denies.
In its daily update, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 39,699 Palestinians had been killed and 91,722 injured since the war began on 7 October, following the cross-border incursion by Hamas in which 1,200 people in Israel were killed and around 250 taken hostage.
In a call with France’s Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, Iranian state media reported president Masoud Pezeshkian as warning “Iran will never remain silent in the face of aggression” and insisting that, if the West truly wants to prevent escalation in the region, it should force Israel to accept a ceasefire.
