Israeli Strike Kills Dozens at Former School Shelter in Gaza

Post by: Elena Malik

Photo : AP

At least 140 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded in recent days during the Israeli offensive in central Gaza, Daqran said, severely taxing the hospital’s already depleted resources.

An Israeli airstrike hit a United Nations school complex in the central Gaza Strip that had become a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians, killing dozens of people, officials said early Thursday.

Israel’s military said the attack had targeted Hamas operatives. Palestinian officials said it had killed civilians.

The bodies of more than 40 people killed in the attack were brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, a spokesperson for the medical facility, Khalil Daqran, said Thursday morning. At least some of the victims were women, children and older people, he added, although he declined to provide a precise figure.

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Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesperson, said he was “not aware of any civilian casualties” as a result of the strike. “We conducted a precise strike against the terrorists where they were,” he said.

At least 140 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded in recent days during the Israeli offensive in central Gaza, Daqran said, severely taxing the hospital’s already depleted resources.

“Wounded patients are lying on the ground in the hallways and in tents outside,” he said. “And our capability to treat them at this point is extremely limited.”

The Israeli military said its fighter jets had targeted three classrooms in a school building that held 20 to 30 Palestinian militants affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militia also backed by Iran. Israeli forces had twice postponed the strike so as to reduce civilian casualties, the military said.

Lerner said the militants were “effectively operating under the U.N. flag” in an attempt to avoid Israeli fire, in what he said was the fifth such incident in the past month. He said the militants had used the compound to plan attacks on Israeli forces, although he did not provide specific examples.

The compound that was hit, in the central Gaza city of Nuseirat, had been operated by UNRWA, the main UN body that aids Palestinians in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini, the director of UNRWA, called Israel’s claim that Hamas had used the school’s premises for military purposes “shocking,” but said the agency could not verify it.

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