Israel attacks Gaza school, killing 30

Palestinians mourn their relatives who died in the Israeli bombing of the UNRWA school in Nusserat refugee camp in front of the morgue of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on June 6, 2024. | Photo credit: AP

In the early hours of June 6, Israel attacked a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza that the military said was being used as a “Hamas stronghold,” killing at least 30 people, including five children, according to local health officials.

The attack came after the Israeli military said it was launching new air and ground operations in central Gaza and international medical teams reported a surge in casualties. The latest operations appear to mark a further expansion of Israel’s nearly eight-month offensive, which has seen it launch Hamas attack on October 7.

Also read | UNICEF finds 90% of Gaza children lack food to grow properly

At least 30 bodies were found at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in a school strike and six more in a separate strike on a home, according to hospital records and an Associated Press correspondent at the hospital. Hamas-controlled media had previously reported a higher toll from the school strike.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked the school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA. The military claimed that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were using the school as a cover for their operations, but did not immediately provide evidence.

UNRWA schools across Gaza have served as shelters since the start of the war, which has displaced most of the region’s 2.3 million Palestinians.

“Before the strike, we took a number of measures to reduce the risk of harm to unaffected civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance and providing additional BroadCast Unitedligence information,” the Israeli military said.

Both attacks took place in Nusserat, one of several refugee camps built in the Gaza Strip that date back to the 1948 war over Israel’s founding, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in the new state.

The latest war began with a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 250 hostages. The Israeli offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.

The United States fully supports President Biden’s plan last week for a phased ceasefire and hostage release. But Israel says there will be no end to the war without destroying Hamas, while Hamas demands a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The military said on Wednesday that its forces were conducting operations “above and below ground” in eastern Deir al-Balah and the Breji refugee camp in central Gaza. The military said the operation began with airstrikes on militant infrastructure, followed by “targeted daytime operations” in the two areas.

Doctors Without Borders said at least 70 bodies and 300 wounded, mostly women and children, were taken to a hospital in central Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday after a series of Israeli attacks.

The international charity said in an article on X on Wednesday that Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital was struggling to treat “large numbers of patients, many of whom suffer from severe burns, shrapnel wounds, fractures and other trauma.”

Nearly eight months of war have brought Gaza’s health system to the brink of collapse. Before the latest attack, Gaza hospitals were treating about 700 sick and wounded people. On Wednesday, the hospital said one of its two generators had stopped working, threatening its ability to continue using ventilators and incubators for premature babies.

Since the start of the war, Israel has launched frequent air strikes on all of Gaza and carried out large-scale ground operations against the region’s two largest cities, Gaza City and Khan Younis, leaving most of those cities in ruins.

Earlier this year, the Israeli military launched a weeks-long offensive against Breji and several nearby refugee camps in central Gaza.

Last Friday, after weeks of fighting, troops withdrew from the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, which was extensively destroyed. Emergency workers have recovered the bodies of 360 people killed in the fighting, mostly women and children.

Israel Last month I sent troops into RafahIt is described as a limited incursion, but the forces are now operating in the central area of ​​Gaza’s southernmost city. More than a million people have fled Rafah since the operation began, many heading to central Gaza.