More than 100 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, officials in the enclave said.
Three Israeli bombs hit the al-Tabin school in the Daraj district, Gaza’s civil defense agency said of Saturday’s attack, which it described as a “horrific massacre.”
Women, children and the elderly were among the dead, and the toll is expected to rise. The attack took place as worshipers were performing morning prayers and sparked a fire that engulfed the building.
Ismail al-Thawabta, the head of the Gaza government’s media office, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the Israeli military used three bombs, each weighing 907kg, in its attack.
He said Israel was aware of the presence of displaced people inside the school.
The Israeli military said its air force struck a “command and control center” that “served as a hideout for terrorists and Hamas commanders.”
Without providing evidence, the Israeli military said in a separate statement that it had intelligence indicating that 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, including senior commanders, were operating from the school.
He also said that the figures for civilian casualties given by the Palestinian authorities were inaccurate.
Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked schools used as shelters in Gaza, claiming they were command centers for Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the territory, to hide fighters and manufacture weapons.
Saturday’s attack was the fourth such attack in a week. Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals.
The attack was condemned by Qatar and Egypt, two of the main mediators leading the ceasefire negotiations, as well as several other countries. Palestinian political factions, as well as NGOs and the UN refugee agency (UNRWA) also denounced the attack.
Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat reported that rescue teams were unable to help those trapped by the flames because the Israeli army cut off water access to the area.
Several of the wounded taken to al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City were in critical condition, bleeding profusely from shrapnel or badly burned by the fire that broke out following the shelling, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud said, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
“Many arrive soaked in blood or already declared dead,” Mahmoud said, adding that the medical facility was on the verge of collapse and unable to provide adequate medical care.
Some bodies were difficult to recognize, “so families at the hospital looking for their loved ones are struggling to find a way to identify them,” he added.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the civil protection agency, said: “The school area is littered with corpses and body parts. It is very difficult for paramedics to identify a whole body. There is an arm here, a leg there. The bodies are torn to pieces.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Mahmoud said those killed included survivors of attacks on various evacuation centres over the past 10 days.
“They had lost family members, they were left to fend for themselves and were seeking refuge and protection in this school turned evacuation center,” he said. “This means that entire families are being wiped out and erased from the civil registry throughout the Gaza Strip.”
The attack comes as Qatar, Egypt and the United States have called on Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations on August 15 to reach a ceasefire.
“But every time we get close to any sort of ceasefire negotiation, there’s some sort of large-scale Israeli attack that completely derails those talks,” said Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan.
Hassan Barari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University, said the attack was part of Israel’s strategy to thwart peace efforts.
“They targeted hospitals and now schools. And this reflects the Israeli mentality that wants to make Gaza a really difficult place to live,” Barari told Tel Aviv Tribune, adding that this was a pressure tactic to extract concessions from Hamas in future negotiations.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Barari said. “Every time there was talk of peace negotiations and truth, the Israelis did something to undermine those efforts. And I think this time it’s clear that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is trying to prevent Thursday’s negotiations.”
Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that at least 39,790 people have been killed and 92,002 wounded in Israel’s war on the enclave.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel in the Hamas attacks on October 7, and more than 200 were taken prisoner.
