80 killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school, say Palestinians

It was among what the U.N. human rights office called “systematic attacks on schools” by Israel, with at least 21 since July 4 leaving hundreds dead, including women and children.

“For many, schools are the last resort to find some shelter,” it said after Saturday’s attack.

The Israeli military acknowledged it targeted the Tabeen school in central Gaza City, saying it hit a Hamas command center in a mosque in its compound and killed 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters. Izzat al-Rishq, a top Hamas official, denied there were militants in the school.

Israel’s military disputed the toll, saying the “precise munitions” used “cannot cause the amount of damage that is being reported” by the Hamas-run government. It said the steps it took to limit the risk to civilians included the use of a “small warhead,” aerial surveillance and intelligence information.

Walls were blown out on the ground level of the large building. Concrete chunks and twisted metal lay on the blood-soaked floor. Bodies, some in bloodstained shrouds, were placed shoulder to shoulder in makeshift graves, making room for more.

Fadel Naeem, director of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, told The Associated Press it received 70 bodies, along with body parts of at least 10 others. Gaza’s Health Ministry said another 47 people were wounded.

“We received some of the most serious injuries we encountered during the war,” Naeem said, with many wounded having limbs amputated and some with severe burns.

Three missiles ripped through the two-story building — the first floor housed the mosque, and the second level had a school — where about 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense first responders, who operate under the Hamas-run government.

Many of the casualties were women and children, he said.

The strike hit without warning before sunrise, according to witness Abu Anas.

“There were people praying, there were people washing and there were people upstairs sleeping, including children, women and old people,” he said, prayer beads in hand. “The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile, and the second. We recovered them as body parts.”

A camera operator working for the AP said a missile appeared to have penetrated the floor of the classrooms to the mosque below and exploded.

As of July 6, the U.N. previously said, 477 out of 564 schools in Gaza were directly hit or damaged in the war, adding that Israel has a duty under international law to provide safe shelter for the displaced.

“There’s no justification for these massacres,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on social media. U.K. Foreign Minister David Lammy said that he was “appalled.” France’s foreign ministry called the recent number of civilian victims in Israeli strikes on schools “intolerable.”

The U.S. said it was deeply concerned about reports of civilians killed.

“Far too many civilians continue to be killed and wounded,” U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement.

Israel blamed civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the group endangers people by using schools and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations.

The U.N. human rights office acknowledged that co-locating combatants with civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law, but said Israel must comply with the law’s principles of precaution and proportionality.

The strike came as U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire agreement that could help calm soaring tensions in the region after the assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.