Israeli forces killed dozens of displaced Palestinians—mostly children—on Sunday with attacks on a pair of United Nations-run schools in the Gaza Strip as diplomats in the region worked to prevent all-out war from breaking out in the aftermath of Israel's latest assassination spree.
Al Jazeera reported that 80% of the roughly 30 people killed in the Israeli attacks on two schools in Gaza City were children. The strikes came shortly after Israel's military bombed a hospital complex in central Gaza, killing at least five people.
"This is beyond horror now," David Shoebridge, an Australian senator, wrote in response to the attacks on schools-turned-shelters.
Tareq Abu Azzoum of Al Jazeera noted that rescue teams were still searching the rubble of the two schools for survivors on Monday.
"At least 16 Palestinians are still missing, including children, under the remnants of these areas that were targeted by Israel without any prior warning," Azzoum wrote. "Civil defense crews have been using only their bare hands in order to look for survivors. They have been saying that sometimes the process for recovering and pulling out victims can take days simply because there isn't enough fuel to operate the vast majority of bulldozers, and due to the Israeli attacks on bulldozers at the municipal facilities, used in the initial months of the war to rescue victims."
Israel's monthslong war on the Gaza Strip has devastated the territory's children, killing more than 14,000, wounding more than 12,000, and leaving over 20,000 missing. The physical toll has been compounded by what one Gaza mother recently described as the "complete psychological destruction" of the enclave's youth.
Becky Platt, a British pediatric nurse who recently returned from Gaza after a stint at a field hospital there, wrote Monday that "the psychological distress that I witnessed among children and young people is like nothing I'd ever seen before."
"It's very easy to be overwhelmed by the numbers when we watch the news or read about what's happening in Gaza," Platt continued. "Remember that each one of those numbers is one person, a child who has been forever changed by what's happened. Then multiply that one child by thousands. That's the work that needs to be done."
Israel's attacks came after a round of cease-fire talks in Cairo concluded without a deal to end the assault on Gaza. Critics, including some Israeli officials, believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is actively sabotaging cease-fire talks in a bid to remain in power.
Axios reported Sunday that "Israeli officials and families of hostages are concerned Netanyahu, who recently toughened his demands and presented new conditions for a hostage and cease-fire deal, sent the delegation [to Cairo] only to create an appearance of negotiations to relieve some of the pressure from" U.S. President Joe Biden, who has called for a cease-fire while continuing to provide military support for the war on Gaza.
"Hamas rejected Netanyahu's new conditions, which include forming an international mechanism to prevent weapons transfers from southern Gaza to the north," according to Axios. "Israeli officials say this and other new demands are making a deal impossible."
Meanwhile, diplomats are trying to prevent the region from descending into full-scale military conflict following Israel's assassination of a Hezbollah commander and Hamas' political leader.
Iran's supreme leader has reportedly ordered an attack on Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told G7 nations on Sunday that Iran's military response could begin as soon as Monday.
Late last week, the Pentagon announced it would "deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the Middle East" as lawmakers and anti-war campaigners warned of deepening U.S. involvement in the regional war.
"Americans do not want to fight another war in the Middle East," Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said last week, "and the path out of the unimaginable death and destruction in Gaza that threatens to engulf the region is through a cease-fire."
