An Israeli airstrike on a school building housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City has killed more than 70 people, a hospital director told the BBC.
Fadl Naeem, director of al-Ahli hospital, where many of the victims were taken, said that these victims were the ones identified so far, with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that it was difficult to identify them.
An Israeli military spokesman said the al-Taba’een school “serves as an active military base of Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” which Hamas denies.
The attack was criticized by Western powers and countries in the region, who said it showed Israel’s reluctance to reach a ceasefire or end the war in Gaza.
Israel has attacked several such shelters in Gaza in the past few weeks.
According to the United Nations, 477 of Gaza’s 564 school buildings have been hit or directly damaged since July 6, and more than a dozen others have been targeted since then.
The Al-Taba’een School housed more than 1,000 people. It recently hosted dozens of people displaced from the town of Beit Hanoun after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes.
The building also served as a mosque and the Israeli attack struck during morning prayers, according to witnesses.
Jaafar Taha, a student who lives near the school, told the BBC that the sound of the bombing was followed by screams and noise.
“‘Save us, save us,’ they were screaming,” he said.
“The scene was horrific. There were body parts everywhere and blood covering the walls.”
Salim Oweis, spokesman for the UN children’s agency, Unicef, told the BBC the attack was “really outrageous”.
“All those schools are really packed with civilians, children, mothers and families, who are taking refuge in any empty space whether it’s a school or it’s a mosque, whatever it is, even in hospital yards.”
Israel’s military said it had “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the al-Taba’een school”.
A statement by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said that “based on Israeli intelligence, approximately 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including senior commanders, were operating from the compound struck at the al-Tabaeen school, using it to carry out terrorist attacks”.
A later statement by the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency said “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists” were “eliminated” in the attack.
Earlier estimates of the number of dead were also in the dozens, with the Hamas-run health ministry’s ambulance service saying more than 60 had been killed, according to AP. The civil defence agency put the number at more than 90.
The BBC cannot independently verify figures from either side.
Source: BBC News
