The Israeli armed forces on Saturday launched new deadly bombings in the Gaza Strip, one of which killed 16 people inside a school where thousands of displaced people have taken refuge, according to the Hamas health ministry, while also killing a member of Hezbollah in drone strike in neighboring Lebanon.

For its part, Israel said its air force targeted “several terrorists” in the UN-run Nuseirat “al Jaouni school sector” (central), where displaced persons have taken refuge. “This location was used to hide weapons and as an operational infrastructure from which to launch attacks against (Israeli) military personnel,” he claimed.

On the 275th day of the war, which today enters its tenth month, the Hamas government announced that sixteen people were killed in the Israeli bombing of the school.

At the same time, diplomatic efforts have resumed with the aim of concluding a cease-fire agreement and the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, with Israel announcing that it will send a delegation next week to continue talks with Qatari mediators.

The war was sparked by an unprecedented raid by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s military arm in southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,195 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 116 remain in the hands of Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, but 42 are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.

Israel’s political and military leadership has vowed to destroy Hamas, which the US and EU designate as a terrorist organization.

In the large-scale military operations launched since then, at least 38,098 people have lost their lives in the Palestinian enclave, the majority of them civilians, according to the data released yesterday by the Health Ministry of the Hamas government.

In the small, ruined enclave, where Israel besieges 2.4 million people, conditions are “catastrophic” according to the UN, with severe shortages of drinking water and food. The United Nations estimates that at least 80% of the population has been displaced and many people, including children, have starved to death.

The Hamas government denounced the “horrific massacre”, referring to the bombing of the al-Zauni school, citing another 50 wounded who were taken to hospital. According to the same source, there are 7,000 evacuees at the school.

“Shards were coming at me while I was in the classroom, children were injured,” Sama Abu Amsa told AFP at the school. “Where should we go? Our children are dying of fear.”

Earlier, rescue teams said 10 people were killed, including three journalists, in a hit to a house in Nuseirat camp. A fourth journalist was killed in Gaza City (north), according to the Hamas news agency.

Fighting also continued in Shujaya, a district of Gaza City, where a ground operation with air support has been underway since June 27.

The area in question is among those that the Israeli armed forces are making a fresh attempt at despite having assured they were in control.

They said “Hamas terrorists” had been killed and “weapons and infrastructure” destroyed, including tunnels, adding that “the enemy is seeking to establish a base” in the district.

Elements of the Israeli army were also involved in fighting in Rafah (south), where eyewitnesses reported heavy artillery being used in the city center. According to the Israeli armed forces, “terrorist cells were eliminated”, while “underground tunnels were destroyed” and “weapons were seized”.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced that two of its workers were killed in Al Buraij (center), without further details.

The war continues to risk spreading as daily exchanges of fire continue between the Israeli armed forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah on both sides of the border.

A “local official” of the powerful Iran-aligned Shiite movement, an ally of Hamas, was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, about 100km from the border, according to an AFP source in Hezbollah.

The Israeli armed forces confirmed that they “operated in the Baalbek area to hit and eliminate (…) a key member of Hezbollah’s air defense unit”, which, according to them, had “participated in the planning and execution of numerous terrorist attacks attacks” against Israel and helped build the organization’s “Iranian weapons arsenal.”

Against this background, a new effort is underway to strike a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US, where he is expected to address the full Congress on July 24, looms.

Following Friday’s talks in Doha by Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea, a group will continue negotiations in Qatar “next week”, Mr Netanyahu’s office said.

He spoke of continuing “differences” with Hamas, which for its part announced new “ideas”.

The mediation efforts of Qatar, Egypt and the US have so far come up against the irreconcilable claims put forward by the two sides.

Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will continue until Hamas is eliminated and all hostages are freed; Hamas is demanding a permanent cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the enclave before a deal is struck.

“It is important to reach an agreement” on the return of the hostages, Almog Meir Can, who was freed in early June during a military operation, said in a taped message broadcast at a new demonstration in Tel Aviv against the Netanyahu government last night.