The Israeli army claims to have “precisely struck Hamas terrorists”. The Palestinian Civil Defense speaks of a “horrific massacre” in a shelter for “Palestinian displaced persons”.
Gaza: At least 90 people died in a new Israeli strike on a school in Gaza City, the Hamas-run Civil Defense said on Saturday, while the day before an Israeli strike on Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, left at least 21 dead.
The strike on the school in central Gaza City also injured 47 people, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service, also under Hamas control.
The Israeli army claims to have “Hamas terrorists hit with precision who were operating within a Hamas command and control center located in the Al-Tabai’een school.”
Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal, for his part, described a “atrocious massacre“. According to him, the school was targeted three times and housed “Palestinian displaced persons“.
The strike came without warning, early in the morning, before sunrise, as people were praying in a mosque inside the school, according to Abu Anas, a witness who worked to rescue people.
“There were people praying, people washing and people sleeping upstairs, including children, women and elderly people,” he said. “The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile, and the second. We recovered them as body parts.”
Three missiles hit the school and the mosque inside, where about 6,000 displaced people were sheltering from the war, Mahmoud Bassal said.
Many of the dead were unrecognizable, he said, adding that he expected the toll to rise. Many of the victims were women and children.
Israel blamed the Hamas responsibility for the deaths of civilians in Gaza, saying the group endangers non-combatants by using schools and residential areas as bases of operations and attacks.
Victims in Khan Younis, a ruined city
Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis have killed at least 21 Palestinians, local health officials said. Friday.
The airstrikes came after Israeli evacuation orders triggered a new exodus of Palestinians heavily destroyed parts of the city, where many had only just returned after Israel’s last incursion in July.
One of the airstrikes in Khan Younis hit the home of the Abu Moamar family, killing a Palestinian television journalist, his wife and three daughters.
Another strike hit tents sheltering displaced people in Mawasi, an area the Israeli military had designated as a humanitarian zone.
A journalist from the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV channel and five others were killed in the attack.
A third airstrike targeted a car in Khan Younis.
Thousands of people fled the city on Thursday, carrying essentials such as tents, backpacks and blankets.
This is at least the third time Israeli forces launch a major incursion into Khan Younis, the town where Israeli officials have said they believe Yahya Sinwar, the new leader of Hamas and the architect of the October 7 attack, may be located.
Much of the city is now nothing more than ruins.
Diplomatic efforts
The strikes come as U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire deal that could help ease rising tensions in the region following the killings of Hamas’ top political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
Israel has said it aims to destroy Hamas following the October 7 attack that left 1,200 dead and during which 250 other people were kidnapped.
The Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and injured more than 91,700 others.according to the enclave’s health ministry.
More than 1.9 million peopleof the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza before the war, were driven from their homesfleeing repeatedly across the territory to escape the offensives. Most of them are now crammed into dilapidated tent camps in an area of about 50 square kilometers on the Gaza coast.