Israel says Gaza strike killed 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters

TEL AVIV — An Israeli airstrike in Gaza early Saturday targeted a Hamas command center in a mosque in the compound of the Tabeen school in central Gaza City. Israel said it hit and killed 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters.

Palestinian health authorities said 80 people were killed and nearly 50 others wounded.

Israel’s military disputed the toll, saying the “precise munitions” used “cannot cause the amount of damage that is being reported” by the Hamas-run government. It said the steps it took to limit the risk to civilians included “the use of a small warhead, aerial surveillance and intelligence information.”

The U.S. said it was deeply concerned about reports of civilians killed. “Far too many civilians continue to be killed and wounded,” U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement.

Israel has blamed civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the terrorist group endangers noncombatants by using schools and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations. The U.N. human rights office acknowledged that co-locating combatants with civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law, but that Israel must also comply with the law’s principles of precaution and proportionality.

The strike came as U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to achieve a cease-fire agreement that could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which terrorists from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 others.