DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)
An Israeli attack on a school in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday killed at least 22 people, the enclave’s Health Ministry said, while the Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center in the Gaza Strip. what used to be a school.
Another 30 people were injured in the attack on the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, the ministry said in a statement. Most of the victims were women and children, he added. It is currently unknown to which hospital the dead and injured were taken.
In a video recorded by The Associated Press, dozens of people, including children, are seen digging through the rubble of the building, whose roof collapsed, its walls fell, and where a pile of cables and metal rods could be seen. Outside, other people gathered around several shrouded bodies. Some covered their faces, crying for their relatives who lost their lives in the attack.
A missile, a missile from the plane hit us, and then another missile, said Ferial Deloul, a displaced person. We saw the whole world covered in smoke and stones, and we saw people and children injured. What should we do? What is our fault that this happens to us?
Israeli military forces said earlier Saturday that they had hit a Hamas command and control center that was embedded inside a complex that previously served as a school. They noted that they had taken measures to limit damage to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.
Also on Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that five of its workers had been killed and five more were wounded by Israeli fire that hit the ministry’s warehouses in the Musbah area in the south of the enclave.
Opposing narratives on the use of schools and hospitals
Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out, the Israeli army has hit several schools, filled with tens of thousands of Palestinians who had to leave their homes due to Israeli offensives and evacuation orders. The conflict has displaced 90% of Palestinians from Gaza, according to United Nations figures.
The Israeli military has accused Hams on several occasions of operating out of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, such as schools and UN facilities and hospitals. Opposing narratives about the use of schools and hospitals are at the center of the conflict, which has lasted almost a year.
Earlier this month, an Israeli strike hit a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 14 people, according to Palestinian medical officials. The Israeli military said the attack targeted Hams fighters who were planning attacks from inside the school.
In July, Israeli airstrikes hit a girls’ school in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 30 people who were taking refuge inside the building. The Israeli military said it attacked a Hams command center used to carry out attacks on its troops and store large quantities of weapons.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in an attack on October 7 in southern Israel. They took another 250 people hostage and still hold about 100 captive. Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Tensions increase in the region
Tensions escalated in the region on Friday after an airstrike in a suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed 31 people, including civilians and Ibrahim Akil, who was in charge of the political group’s Radwan Force. paramilitary Hezbollah. Ahmed Wahbi, another high-ranking commander of the military branch of the Lebanese group, also lost his life.
The attack came hours after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombing raids on northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting. Israel’s anti-missile system, known as the Iron Dome, intercepted most of the rockets.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Israel hit more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon on Saturday.