Israel-Hamas War: Israeli Airstrike on Gaza City School Kills Over 60

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike hit a school that had been turned into a shelter in Gaza City early Saturday, killing more than 60 people, Palestinian health authorities said, in one of the deadliest strikes in the 10-month-old war between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli military acknowledged the attack, claiming it hit a Hamas command center inside the school. Hamas denied using the school as a command center.

The Health Ministry’s emergency and ambulance service said the strike on the Tebbin school in central Gaza City wounded 47 people. The school, like almost all schools in Gaza, is used as a shelter for people forced to flee their homes because of the war.

The bombing occurred without warning in the early morning before sunrise while people were praying in a mosque inside the school, according to Abu Anas, an eyewitness who worked to rescue people.

“There were people praying, there were people washing themselves, there were people sleeping upstairs, including children, women and elderly people. The rocket fell on them without warning. The first rocket, the second. We pulled them out like human remains,” he said.

Three rockets penetrated the school and the mosque inside, where about 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter from the war, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the civil defense forces operating under the Hamas-run government.

He added that many of the dead could not be identified, indicating that he expected the death toll to rise. He said that many of the victims were women and children.

According to the United Nations, 477 of Gaza’s 564 schools had been directly hit or damaged in the war as of July 6. In June, 12 more schools were damaged. Israeli raid on school Israeli shelling targeting displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, local health officials said.

Israel has blamed Hamas for the civilian deaths in Gaza, saying the group puts civilians at risk by using schools and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations and attacks.

In its statement on Saturday, the Israeli military claimed that Hamas militants had used the school as a base to plan attacks on Israeli forces, without providing evidence. It said the school was located next to a mosque that was used as a shelter for Gaza City residents.

The strike came as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their efforts. Pressure both parties to reach a ceasefire agreement Which may help calm the rising tensions in the region after Assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a prominent political leader in Hamas In Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Egypt, which borders Gaza and acts as a key mediator, said the strike on the school showed Israel had no intention of reaching a ceasefire and ending the war.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and injured more than 91,700 others, according to the Strip’s statistics. Ministry of HealthThe war broke out following an October 7 Hamas attack in which militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others.

More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, Fleeing repeatedly across the area to escape attacks.Most of them now live in ramshackle tent camps in an area of ​​about 50 square kilometres (19 square miles) on the Gaza coast.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.