(Deir al-Bala, Gaza Strip) — At least 22 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, while the Israeli army said it had targeted a Hamas headquarters inside a former school building.
The ministry said in a statement that 30 more people were wounded in the attack on the school in Gaza City’s Zaytun district, most of the victims being women and children. It was not immediately clear which hospitals the dead and injured had been taken to.
Video taken by the Associated Press showed dozens of people, including children, digging through the rubble of the building, whose ceilings had collapsed and walls had been blown away, revealing piles of electrical wires and metal rods. Outside, others gathered around bodies wrapped in cloth, some crying and covering their faces for relatives killed in the raid.
“One missile, one fired from a plane, and then another hit,” said refugee Ferial Deleur. “The whole world was covered in smoke and stones, and I saw people and children being chopped up… What should we do? Is it our fault that this is happening?”
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The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas “command and control center” early on Saturday, “housed in a building formerly used as a school,” and said it had taken measures to limit civilian harm, including using precision weapons and aerial surveillance.
Also on Saturday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Israeli forces had attacked a ministry warehouse in the southern Musba district, killing five staff members and wounding five.
Disputes over school and hospital access
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces have attacked several schools housing tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been forced from their homes by Israeli attacks and evacuation orders. The conflict has displaced 90 percent of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to UN figures.
The army has repeatedly accused Hamas of operating within Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals. The dispute over the use of the latter goes to the heart of the nearly year-long conflict.
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Earlier this month, Israeli forces attacked a school in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 14 people, according to Palestinian medical sources. The Israeli army said it was targeting Hamas fighters who were planning an attack from inside the school.
In July, an Israeli airstrike hit a girls’ school in Deir ez-Zor Barah, killing at least 30 people who had taken shelter inside. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center that coordinated the attack on Israeli troops and stored “large quantities of weapons.”
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Hamas has abducted a further 250 people and is holding about 100 hostages. At least 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military operations in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Rising regional tensions
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, killed dozens of people, including civilians and the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Akil, and another senior commander in Hezbollah’s military wing, Ahmed Wahbi, escalating tensions in the region.
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The attack came hours after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, with Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepting most of the rockets.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said Israel struck more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon on Saturday.
Tens of thousands of Israelis took part in several smaller protests in Tel Aviv and across the country on Saturday night, demanding a ceasefire and the return of about 100 hostages still being held in Gaza. The weekly Saturday night protests drew similar turnouts to previous weeks’ despite the tense security situation on Israel’s northern border.