At least 80 people were killed and nearly 50 others were injured in an Israel airstrike early Saturday that hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza, as reported by local officials.
The Israeli military acknowledged the strike and claimed the school was a Hamas command center, although Hamas denies this assertion.
The facility, like most schools in Gaza, was being used to shelter Palestinians who had been displaced from their homes due to the ongoing war. However, the United Nations reported on July 6 that 477 out of Gaza’s 564 schools have been directly hit or damaged in the conflict, with at least 21 recent strikes since July 4 resulting in hundreds of casualties.
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Saturday’s attack is now considered one of the deadliest since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began 10 months ago, with officials anticipating the death toll to rise further.
Fadel Naeem, director of Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital, informed The Associated Press that the attack resulted in some of the most severe injuries seen during the war, including severe burns and many individuals requiring limb amputations.
A witness working at the shelter mentioned that many people were either praying in the school’s mosque or sleeping when the strike occurred unexpectedly, with a total of three missiles hitting the two-story building, according to the AP.
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In a post on X, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces stated that the country’s intelligence had identified at least 20 Hamas and “Islamic Jihad militants” operating within the compound, using it as a base to carry out terrorist activities.
The spokesperson also mentioned that an “initial review” indicated discrepancies between Gaza’s reports on the death toll, the type of munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike, as opposed to the IDF’s findings.
