Israeli airstrikes on crowded UN shelters in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp killed more than 80 Palestinians on Saturday as it prepared to expand its offensive in the south deepening fears for hundreds of thousands of civilians who have sought refuge there. 


According to a Guardian report, at least 26 people were killed in an airstrike outside the southern town of Khan Younis in the early hours of Saturday morning.


An early morning attack on a UN-run school in Jabalia camp on Saturday killed 52 people while another strike on a building there killed 32 members of a single family, including 19 children, officials from the Hamas-run health ministry told AFP.


Denouncing the attacks, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths posted on X saying: "Shelters are a place for safety. Schools are a place for learning. Tragic news of the children, women and men killed while sheltering at al-Fakhouri school in northern Gaza." 


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“Civilians cannot and should not have to bear this any longer.”


Amid the ongoing offensive, north Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, was emptied except for 120 of the most vulnerable patients and five doctors to take care of them. With continous bombings in the area, basic medical resources for new victims were available for the patients as per the Guardian report. 


Israel, however, told BBC that it could not confirm that it struck a UN school-turned-shelter but was investigating.  


United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini described that he saw "horrifying images and footage of scores of people killed and injured" in one of the agency's schools "sheltering thousands of displaced".


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"These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop," he said. Over 30 members from the same family were killed elsewhere in Jabalia, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, in what it said was also an Israeli airstrike, according to the BBC.


As per the Gaza's health ministry, over 12,300 Palestinians have been killed so far since the war started on October 7 in the coastal strip while more than 2,000 are feared to be buried under rubble.