Israeli strikes kill 18, including refugee camp mayor

Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza overnight killed 18 people, including the mayor of the Nuseirat refugee camp, hospital officials said Friday.

The strikes targeted the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and the towns of Deir al-Balah and Zawayda, according to The Associated Press. Iyad al-Mughari, mayor of the Nuseirat camp, was killed along with four children and one woman, hospital officials said, AP reported.

The IDF said Friday it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters in central Gaza, according to Israeli media.

A spokesperson for Hamas said Israel’s "assassination of the mayor of Nuseirat is a war crime with the aim of creating chaos and multiplying the humanitarian crisis," according to Al Jazeera Palestine.

The strikes came just hours after Israel’s bombing of a United Nations-run school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians on Thursday. More than 30 people were killed in that strike, which Israel claimed targeted Hamas fighters hiding in classrooms.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, condemned the bombing of the al-Sardi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp as “appalling” and called for an investigation.

More than 36,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed since Israel launched its invasion of the Gaza Strip last October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel’s began its military operation in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and saw about 250 taken hostage.