ISRAEL claims to have bombed a Hamas base hidden in a school in a strike Gaza’s health authorities said left up to 100 people dead.
IDF officials said they struck the compound at the Al-Taba’een school in Gaza City which was being used be terrorists planning attacks on civilians.
4
4
4
The IDF insists they “took many steps to reduce the chance of harming civilians” before launching a precision strike.
And it accused Hamas of “using the population as a human shield”.
Israel forces said terrorists are “systematically violating international law and operating out of civilian shelters”.
Witnesses claimed the strike was launched early in the morning – with up to three rockets hitting the compound.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency claimed the death toll from the strike was up to 100 people.
The school is claimed to have been used as a shelter for those displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel often disputes the death tolls announced by the terror group.
Abu Anas said: “There were people praying, there were people washing.
“There were people upstairs sleeping, including children, women and old people.
“The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile, and the second. We recovered them as body parts.”
First responders said three missiles ripped through the school and the mosque inside.
Spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said about 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter from the war inside.
Many of the dead were unrecognizable, he said, adding that he expected the death toll to rise.
Many of the casualties were women and children, he said.
According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 schools in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged in the war as of July 6.
In June, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials.
Israel has blamed the civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the group endangers noncombatants by using schools and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations and attacks.
In its statement this morning, the Israeli military said the school was located next to a mosque serving as a shelter for Gaza City residents.
The strike came as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for the two parties to achieve a cease-fire agreement.
The truce could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of top Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The war was triggered by Hamas October 7 attack, in which militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 others.
More than 1.9 million of Gazas pre-war population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, fleeing repeatedly across the territory to escape offensives.
Most are now crowded into ramshackle tent camps in an area of about 19 square miles on the Gaza coast.
Discussion about this post