An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 30 people, including 23 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said that Hamas militants were operating from within the school. It was the latest instance of mass casualties among Palestinians trying to find refuge as Israel expands its offensive.
A day earlier, the military announced a new ground and air assault in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants, which it says have regrouped there. Troops have repeatedly swept back into parts of the Gaza Strip they have previously invaded, underscoring the resilience of the multinational group despite Israel’s nearly eight-month onslaught.
Witnesses and hospital officials said the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees known by the acronym UNRWA. The school was filled with Palestinians who had fled Israeli operations and bombardment in northern Gaza, they said. Ayman Rashed, a man from Gaza City who was sheltering at the school, said the missiles hit classrooms on the second and third floors, where families were sheltering.
He said he helped carry out five deaths, including an old man, two children, and one with his head shattered open. Casualties from the school strike arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital nearby Deir al-Balah, which had already been overwhelmed by a stream of constant ambulances since the central Gaza strike began 24 hours earlier, said Omar al-Derawi, a photographer working for the hospital.
Videos circulating online appeared to show several wounded people being treated on the floor of the hospital, a common scene in Gaza’s overwhelmed medical wards. Electricity in much of the hospital is out because staff are rationing fuel supplies for the generator. Hospital records and an Associated Press reporter at the hospital recorded at least 33 deaths from the strike, including 14 children and nine
women.
Another strike on a house overnight killed six people, according to the records. “Both strikes occurred in Nuseirat, one of several built-up refugee camps in Gaza dating to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became the new state.
UNRWA was unable to verify claims that armed groups were inside. An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said that the army wasn’t aware of any civilian casualties in the strike. He said that intelligence indicated that militants had used the school compound to orchestrate some of the attacks on Oct. 7 and that at least 20 militants there were using it currently as a “staging realm” to launch attacks on Israeli soldiers.
The military said it took steps before the strike “to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians.”
UNRWA schools across Gaza have functioned as shelters since the start of the war, which has driven most of the territory’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. Last week, Israeli strikes hit near an UNRWA facility in the southern city of Rafah, saying they were targeting Hamas militants.
An inferno ripped through tents nearby housing displaced families, killing at least 45 people. The deaths triggered inter-national outrage, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a “tragic mishap.