DEIR AL-BALA, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli attack on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, the Gaza health ministry said, while the Israeli military said it had been targeted. Hamas command center Formerly a school.
Another 30 people were injured in the strike on a school in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, the ministry said in a statement. Most of the victims are reported to be women and children. It was not immediately known which hospital the dead and injured were taken to.
Video taken by The Associated Press showed dozens of people, including children, digging through the rubble of the building — its roofs caved in, walls knocked out and a mess of wires and metal rods visible. Outside, others gathered around the shrouded bodies. Some covered their faces and cried for their relatives who died in the protest.
“A missile, a missile from the plane hit us, another missile,” said displaced Feriel Delol. “We saw the whole world covered in smoke and stones, we saw people and children being cut. … What should we do? What is our fault that this has happened to us?”
The Israeli military said earlier Saturday that it struck Hamas’ “command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as a school.” It said measures have been taken to curb activities that harm civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.
On Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that five of its workers were killed and five wounded when Israeli fire hit the ministry’s warehouses in the southern Musba area.
Competing narratives about the use of schools and hospitals
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli army has attacked several schools, and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been driven from their homes by Israeli attacks and evacuation orders. According to United Nations statistics, the conflict has displaced 90% of Palestinians in Gaza.
The military continues to accuse Hamas of operating from within civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals. Competing narratives about the use of schools and hospitals go to the heart of the nearly years-long conflict.
Earlier this month, Israel launched an attack A school in Nusirat refugee campAccording to Palestinian medical officials, 14 people were killed. The Israeli army has said that it is planning to attack Hamas terrorists from inside the school.
In July, Israeli airstrikes on a girls’ school in Deir al-Bala killed at least 30 people. Israel’s military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to launch attacks against its troops and store “a large amount of weapons”.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They kidnapped another 250 people and held another 100 hostages. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
Rising tensions in the region
Following this, there was tension in the area on Friday Israeli air strikes Dozens of people, including civilians, were killed in a suburb of Beirut in Lebanon Ibrahim AkilHe was in charge of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. Another senior commander in the group’s military wing, Ahmed Wahbi, was also killed.
The strike came hours later Hezbollah The north has launched one of its most intense bombardments of Israel in nearly a year of fighting. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the rockets.
Israel hit more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon on Saturday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.
Despite the situation in the north, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to demand the return of the hostages.
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