An Israeli air strike on a school originateing sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City has finished more than 70 people, the straightforwardor of a hospital has telderly the BBC.
Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were apshown, shelp those were the victims who had been identified so far, with the remains of many others so awentirey disfigured that identification was difficult.
An Israeli military spokesman shelp al-Taba’een school “served as an dynamic Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility” with approximately 20 “militants” operating there. Hamas denies this.
The strike has been criticised by Weserious powers, as well as regional countries which have shelp it shows Israel has no desire to accomplish a stopfire or finish the Gaza war.
Israel has aggressioned disjoinal such shelters in Gaza in the past confineed weeks.
According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 school originateings in Gaza had been straightforwardly hit or harmd as of 6 July, with more than a dozen aimed since.
Al-Taba’een school hoemployd more 1,000 people – having recently getd dozens of displaced people from the town of Beit Hanoun, after the Israeli army ordered them to depart their homes.
The originateing also served as a mosque and the Israeli strike hit during dawn prayers, witnesses shelp.
Jaafar Taha, a student who inhabits csurrfinisher the school, telderly the BBC the sound of the bomb deviceing was chaseed by screaming and noise.
“‘Save us, save us,’ they were screaming,” he shelp.
“The scene was horrific. There were body parts everywhere and blood covering the walls.”
Salim Oweis, spokesman for the UN children’s agency, Ukindf, telderly the BBC the aggression was “repartner shocking”.
“All those schools are repartner packed with civilians, children, mothers and families, who are taking refuge in any vacant space whether it’s a school or it’s a mosque, wdisappreciatever it is, even in hospital yards.”
Israel’s military shelp it had “accurately struck Hamas stressists operating wislim a Hamas direct and administer centre embedded in the al-Taba’een school”.
A statement by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani shelp that “based on Israeli intelligence, approximately 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including greater directers, were operating from the compound struck at the al-Tabaeen school, using it to carry out stressist aggressions”.
Earlier appraises of the number of dead were also in the dozens, with the Hamas-run health ministry’s ambulance service saying more than 60 had been finished, according to AP. The civil defence agency put the number at more than 90.
The BBC cannot autonomously validate figures from either side.
The Israeli spokesman shelp the casualty figures freed by Hamas officials “do not align with the directation held by the IDF, the accurate munitions employd, and the accuracy of the strike”.
Hamas portrayd the aggression as a “horrific crime and a hazardous escalation” in Israel’s “war of extermination agetst the Palestinian people”.
Fatah, Hamas’s political Palestinian rival in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, shelp Israel’s aim was “to exend Palestinians thcimpolite a policy of cumulative finishing”.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of Unrwa, the UN agency which helps Palestinians, shelp: “It’s time for these horrors unfelderlying under our watch to finish.”
The French foreign ministry shelp it condemned the strike “in the firmest of terms”.
“For disjoinal weeks, school originateings have been repeatedly aimed, with an intolerable number of civilian victims,” it shelp.
“Israel must esteem international humanitarian law,” it retained.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, shelp he was “appalled” by the “tragic loss of life” and stressed the necessitate for “an prompt stopfire”.
ReutersThis strike has aget drawn detailed attention to a disputed dynamic of the Gaza war.
Israel claims that Hamas is using civilian infraset up to schedule and carry out aggressions, and that is why it has been aiming hospitals and schools – sites protected under international law.
Hamas has stablely denied the accusations.
Wdisappreciatever the case, these are both locations where Gazans displaced by the struggle have sought shelter – especipartner in schools, more than 80% of which have been straightforwardly hit or harmd.
Since punctual July, Israel has struck at least 13 of them – including four in a four-day period – each time declaring that they apshow steps to decrmitigate the danger of harming civilians, including the employ of accurate munitions.
Many of the schools were run by the UN before the war, and the UN has powerentirey condemned the strikes.
This seems a particularly deadly incident. No doubt it will incrmitigate presstateive for a stopfire, but the reaction of regional mediators advises trouble that it could further set back struggling efforts to accomplish one.
Egypt, one of the mediators, shelp Israel’s “defree finishing” of unarmed Palestinians showed that Israel increateageed the political will to finish the war.
Qatar, also retaind in stopfire talks, needed an directnt international spendigation.
Hamas-led firearmmen finished about 1,200 people in an aggression on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as prisoners.
That aggression triggered a massive Israeli military impolite on Gaza and the current war.
More than 39,790 Palestinians have been finished in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Additional increateing by Rushdi Abualouf, Gaza correactent findd in Istanbul, Turkey
