Israeli strike in Gaza City kills 22; military says Hamas targeted

DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA STRIP — An Israeli strike on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, while the Israeli army said that it targeted a Hamas command center in what used to be a school.

Another 30 were wounded in the strike on the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, the ministry said in a statement. Most of the casualties were women and children, it said. It wasn’t immediately clear to which hospital the dead and injured were taken.

Dozens of people, including children, dug through the rubble of the building — its ceilings caved in, walls knocked out and a mess of wires and metal rods visible. Outside, others gathered around shrouded bodies. Some covered their faces as they wept for relatives killed in the strike.

“A missile, a missile from the plane hit us, and another missile,” said Ferial Deloul, who is displaced. “We saw the whole world covered with smoke and stones and we saw people and children cut up. … What should we do? What is our fault for this to happen to us?”

The Israeli army said earlier Saturday that it struck Hamas’ “command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served” as a school. It said steps were taken to limit harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.

5 Gaza ministry workers killed, it says

Also on Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry said five of its workers were killed and five others wounded by Israeli fire that struck the ministry’s warehouses in the southern Musbah area.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli army has struck several schools packed with tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders. The conflict has left 90% of Palestinians in Gaza displaced, according to figures from the United Nations.

The military has accused Hamas of operating from within civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including schools, U.N. facilities and hospitals.

Hamas has been designated a terror group by the U.S., U.K., EU and others.

Israel targets Hamas, strikes school

The contesting narratives over the use of schools and hospitals go to the heart of the nearly yearlong conflict.

Earlier this month, an Israeli strike hit a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 14, according to Palestinian medical officials. The Israeli military said that it was targeting Hamas militants planning attacks from inside the school.

In July, Israeli airstrikes hit a girls’ school in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 30 people sheltering inside. Israel’s military said that it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against its troops and store “large quantities of weapons.”

The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an October 7, 2023, terror attack on southern Israel. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding about 100 hostages. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between fighters and civilians. Israel has not recently estimated the death toll but says that most of the dead are combatants.

By Associated Press