An Israeli airstrike killed 60 people at a school in Gaza in one of the deadliest attacks of the 10-month war, Palestinian officials say.
The attack on the Tabeen school in the center of Gaza city also injured 47 people, according to the local health ministry.
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Witness Abu Anas said the attack occurred without warning early in the morning, before sunrise, while people were praying in a mosque inside the school.
Like most schools in Gaza, it has been used as a shelter for people who have been forced to flee their homes due to the war.
The Israeli military acknowledged the attack – claiming it hit a Hamas command center inside the school.
Abu Anas said: “There were people praying, there were people washing.
“There were people sleeping upstairs, including children, women and elderly people.
“The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile and the second. We recovered them as body parts.”
Rescuers said three missiles hit the school and the mosque inside.
Spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said around 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter from the war inland.
Many of the dead were unrecognizable, he said, adding that he expected the death toll to rise.
Many of the victims were women and children, he said.
According to the United Nations, 477 of the 564 schools in Gaza had been directly hit or damaged in the war as of 6 July.
In June, an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials.
Israel has blamed Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying the group endangers non-combatants by using schools and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations and attacks.
In its statement this morning, the Israeli military said the school was located near a mosque that served as a shelter for Gaza City residents.
The strike occurred as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their efforts for the two sides to reach a ceasefire agreement.
The truce could help calm rising tensions in the region following the assassination of Hamas’s top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and injured more than 91,700 others, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The war was triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7, in which militants from Gaza invaded southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping another 250.
More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, repeatedly fleeing across the territory to escape offensives.
Most are now crammed into dilapidated camps in an area of about 19 square miles on the Gaza coast.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
