GAZA CITY: An Israeli airstrike on Wednesday struck a central Gaza school, with the territory’s civil defence agency reporting at least 14 killed and several injured in the facility turned into a shelter for displaced Palestinians.
The Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat had been converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinians amid the ongoing Israeli bombardments. The attack has further escalated the already dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
According to Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, the Israeli bombing resulted in the deaths of 14 persons, including women and children, and caused several injuries.
The Israeli military, however, stated that the airstrike targeted a Hamas command-and-control center situated within the school grounds.
The Al-Jawni school, previously managed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees, had been sheltering around 5,000 displaced people at the time of the strike. This facility had already been hit multiple times over the past 11 months of Israeli bombing campaign, with the latest attack being at least the fifth such incident.
The Gaza health ministry reported that at least 41,084 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 95,029 wounded in the ongoing Israeli bombardment campaign since October 7. The UN rights office has noted that most of the casualties are women and children. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the health ministry.
The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million population has been displaced at least once by the Israeli bombardments, with many seeking safety in school buildings. Israeli forces have struck several such schools in recent months.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that an airstrike on a refugee camp in Gaza’s al-Mawasi area killed at least 40 people and injured around 60 others. A new investigation by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency has confirmed that the Israeli military used MK-84 bombs, manufactured in the United States, in the air strike.
The MK-84 bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds, were used in the assault on the humanitarian zone near Khan Younis.
Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair said early Tuesday that “40 martyrs and 60 wounded were recovered and shifted” to nearby hospitals after the overnight attack. “We are still working to recover fifteen missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Khan Yunis,” Mughair said.
The attack caused extensive damage to tents, homes, and facilities. The bombing created craters ranging from 10 to 15 meters deep, burying many shelters.
“Over 20 to 40 tents were completely destroyed,” he added, saying the attack left behind “three deep craters.” “There are entire families who completely disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Younis butchery.”
