DEIR AL-BALAR, Gaza Strip — At least 22 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, while the Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas command center inside a former school building.
The ministry said in a statement that 30 more people were wounded in the attack on a school in Gaza City’s Zaytun neighborhood, most of the victims being women and children.
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 measures had been taken to limit civilian harm, including the use of precision weapons and aerial surveillance.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law by operating from inside civilian infrastructure,” the army has repeatedly charged.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces have attacked dozens of 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.
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.
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.
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, killed 31 people, including civilians and the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Akil, escalating tensions in the region. Another senior commander in the group’s military wing, Ahmed Wahbi, was also killed.
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.
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