Dozens of Palestinians were also injured in the bombing of a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, says the Government’s Social Communications Office.
At least 16 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a United Nations-run school housing displaced people in the Gaza Strip, the Gaza Government’s Media Office said, as Israel continues to attack the besieged coastal territory.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Government Media Office said that more than 75 people were also injured in the attack on the al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
“We condemn the Israeli occupation [for] committing these continuous crimes and massacres against civilians, children and women,” he said.
The Nuseirat facility, run by the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), is the latest school to be bombed by the Israeli military since the start of the war in Gaza in early October.
At least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 and the beleaguered enclave faces dire shortages of food, water, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.
On Saturday, dozens of Palestinians, including five journalists, were killed as the Israeli military intensified its bombardment of the territory.
Videos taken at the scene of the attack on the UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat showed twisted metal in the collapsed building. A boy could be seen sifting through pools of blood on the floor.
Footage filmed at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, near Deir el-Balah, and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, also showed children and young people being rushed from ambulances.
They included a girl with a bandaged arm, another with a bloody face and a boy with a bandage on his head. Emergency personnel also attempted to cover two bodies as they were quickly taken to the medical complex.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement that 50 injured Palestinians had been taken to hospital.
On a declaration shared on social media on Saturday night, the Israeli army said its air force “attacked several terrorists” in the al-Jaouni school area.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said hundreds of Palestinian families had sought shelter at the school after being forced to flee Israel’s bombardment elsewhere in Gaza.
Families “chose the intermediate zone [of the Gaza Strip] because Israeli forces said the buffer area is a safe zone,” Khoudary said.
“Everyone in the Gaza Strip believes they are not safe, wherever they go.”
Last month, an Israeli attack on a UN-linked school – also in the Nuseirat refugee camp – killed at least 40 people and injured dozens of others, according to local authorities.
Musab, a 17-year-old survivor of the early June bombing of the UNRWA Nuseirat Preparatory School for Boys, told the UN agency that his father was killed after “missiles rained down” on the family.
“Concrete slabs fell on us and suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by the dead and injured. All my family members were injured or killed,” Musab said in a statement shared by UNRWA.
“We were sleeping and at two in the morning missiles rained on us. They pulled us out of the rubble and all we saw was shrapnel, debris and dust. I’m in shock and can’t comprehend that my father is dead! How are we going to live?
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
