Hamas says Gaza death toll nearing 800

The death toll from the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip has reached 798, Hamas health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra says.

The Hamas spokesman says 98 people died in the Strip today, at least 15 of them in an attack on a UN-run school in the northern town of Beit Hanun, where hundreds of civilians had sought refuge from the violence. The IDF is still trying to determine whether the errant projectile that hit the school was fired by Israel or Hamas.

Earlier today, Hamas rockets launched at Israel fell short and hit Beit Hanun instead. The Israeli army was conducting raids in the area, but had warned UNRWA in advance to evacuate the school, leading the IDF to suspect that Hamas had prevented the evacuation of the building.

Al-Qudra gives no immediate details on those killed in the attack, but an AFP correspondent reports that a mother and her one-year-old infant are among the dead brought into a nearby mortuary.

A later airstrike between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis killed seven people, the “majority of them children” from three different families, Qudra says.

He provides the names and ages of three of the children — Mahmud Abedin, 12, Nabeel al-Astal, 12, and Ashraf al-Najjar, 13 — but no further details.

Elsewhere, nighttime shelling near a hospital east of Gaza City results in the death of a sick child and 30 others wounded, and an air strike in Khan Yunis kills four people, Qudra says.

— AFP contributed