The UN-run school where thousands of displaced Palestinians were taking refuge was struck by an Israeli strike on Saturday, according to the Hamas authorities in Gaza. The strike claimed 16 lives.
The Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, was reportedly the target of Israeli military planes that were shooting at “terrorists.”
Fifty injured were transferred from the school to a hospital, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run region, which denounced the strike as a “odious massacre.”
It was estimated by the Hamas government news office that 7,000 people were taking refuge at the school during the onslaught. After the strike, scores of people rummaged among the debris in search of survivors.
Most of the dead were “children, women, and elderly,” according to the press office. UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, operated the school.
One woman, Samah Abu Amsha, claimed that this was the fourth time the school had been attacked without warning. She described how the missile struck some youngsters who were reading the Qur’an in class.
She told AFP, “The kids were hurt and shrapnel flew at me inside the classroom.”
“A new massacre and crime committed by this criminal enemy as part of its war of genocide against our Palestinian people,” was how Hamas described the strike.
“Several terrorists operating in structures located in the area of UNRWA’s Al-Jawni school,” according to a statement released by the Israeli military, were struck.
“This location served as a hideout and operational infrastructure from which attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip were directed and carried out,” it added, insisting that “steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”
Israel has agreed to meetings with mediators on a ceasefire initiative but has kept up its offensive in the territory that started on October 7 after the Hamas attack on southern Israel.
UNRWA said two of its workers were killed in a strike at Al-Bureij, also in central Gaza, early Saturday. The agency has a major food warehouse in the district.
The Al-Aqsa hospital said nine other bodies were brought to its morgue from the strike.
The UN agency said 194 of its workers have now been killed since the war started.
Over half of UNRWA’s buildings have been damaged since the start of the conflict, many of which were shelters, according to a representative for the organization. The official informed AFP that “at least 500 people sheltering in those facilities have been killed as a result.”
Ten people, including three journalists, perished in another attack on a Nuseirat home on Saturday, according to paramedics.
Speaking on behalf of the civil defense, Mahmud Bassal stated, “Absolutely no place in the Gaza Strip is safe.”
1,195 people, primarily civilians, lost their lives in the October 7 strike on southern Israel, which marked the start of the conflict, according to an AFP count based on Israeli statistics.
Additionally, captives were taken by Hamas terrorists; of them, 116 are still in Gaza, 42 of whom the IDF claims are dead.
Data from the Gaza health ministry, which is operated by Hamas, indicates that in retaliation, Israel launched a military onslaught that has killed at least 38,098 individuals in Gaza, the majority of them civilians.
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