Gaza school airstrike leaves 14 dead, many injured

Palestinians mourned as they searched through rubble following an airstrike on a Gaza school for displaced families.

Israeli forces stepped up bombardment across the Gaza Strip and ordered more evacuations, creating a fresh wave of displacement from northern Gaza, to which Palestinians fear they will not be able to return.

The IDF said in a statement that it had taken steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including using precise munitions and aerial surveillance.

Palestinian rescue workers say at least 14 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli strike on a UN-run school that was being used as a shelter for displaced people.

The Israeli military said the building, in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, was being used by Hamas to plan and execute attacks on Israel.

The military said it took steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including using precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.

In recent months Israel has conducted dozens of air strikes on schools across the Strip, structures where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by fighting have sought refuge.

The United Nations said in September that around 85% of all schools in Gaza have been hit or damaged, with many requiring major reconstruction work to be functional again.

And the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 70% of the schools it administers have been hit and that 95% of them were being used as shelters.

Israeli airstrikes on a residential area close to the Roman ruins of Lebanon's Baalbek destroyed a historic building leaving extensive damage in the surroundings.

Footage showed the streets near the site of the historic ‘Al-Manshiya’ building littered with debris, as several shops and a historic hotel were also damaged in the strikes, a witness said.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon over the last year, the vast majority in the past six weeks.