At least 100 people were killed and dozens more were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza City, according to statements by medical and security sources in the Palestinian territory on Saturday.
The media office of the Hamas-controlled government in Gaza said that Israel’s army attacked the Al-Tabeen school, which was being used as a shelter for displaced persons, during the Islamic morning prayers.
Dozens of the victims were burned to death in the attack, according to the office.
Qatari-based broadcaster Al Jazeera also reported more than 100 dead, citing the Palestinian civil defence agency.
The information could not be independently verified.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier that the country’s air force “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control center embedded in the Al-Taba’een school and located adjacent to a mosque in Daraj Tuffah, which serves as a shelter for the residents of Gaza City.”
The IDF said that the centre “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders,” adding that a number of attacks against Israel were “planned and advanced” from the location.
Militants were reportedly hit in the strike. The Israeli army did not provide any information on casualties in the statement it posted on Telegram.
The military later said that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians” as it accused Palestinian militant organization Hamas of “systematically [violating] international law and [operating] from within civilian shelters, brutally exploiting the civilian population and institutions as human shields for their terror activities.”
The information could not be independently verified.
After the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, school operations in the sealed-off coastal area were suspended. Most schools now serve as emergency shelters for displaced persons.
Around 85% of the population of the Gaza Strip has been forced to leave their homes as a result of the conflict.
The war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented massacre in which more than 1,200 people in Israel were killed by Hamas and other militant groups on October 7 and 250 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip.
In Israel’s air and ground offensive in Gaza, more than 39,600 people have died, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Israel has come under international criticism given the high number of civilian casualties and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza
