An Israeli attack on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, while the Israeli army said it targeted a Hamas command center in what was a school.
Another 30 were injured in the strike at the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, the ministry said in a statement. Most of the victims were women and children, he said. It was not immediately clear which hospital the dead and injured were taken to.
Video taken by The Associated Press showed dozens of people, including children, digging through the rubble of the building — its roofs caved in, walls collapsed and a jumble of wires and metal bars visible. Outside, others gathered around the 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 in smoke and stones and we saw people and children cut. … What should we do? What is our fault for what is happening to us?
The Israeli army said earlier Saturday that it struck the “Hamas command and control center, which was embedded in a compound that previously served” as a school. He said measures were being taken to limit damage to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.
Also on Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry said five of its workers were killed and five others wounded by Israeli fire that hit the ministry’s warehouses in the southern area of Musbah.
Narrative contestation on the use of schools and hospitals
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli army has hit many schools, filled 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 United Nations figures.
The military has continuously accused Hamas of operating from civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals. Competing narratives about the use of schools and hospitals go to the heart of the conflict almost every year.
Earlier this month, an Israeli attack hit a school in the Nuseirat refugee campkilling 14, according to Palestinian medical officials. The Israeli military said 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 who were taking refuge inside. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against its troops and store “large amounts of weapons.”
The war began when fighters led by Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on October 7 in southern Israel. They kidnapped another 250 people and still hold around 100 hostages. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Escalating tension in the region
Tensions rose in the region the following Friday an Israeli airstrike in a suburb of Beirut in Lebanon killed dozens of people, including civilians and Ibrahim Akilwho was in charge of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. Also killed was Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander in the group’s military wing.
The strike came hours later Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in almost a year of fighting. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the missiles.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel had fired more than 400 rocket launchers into Lebanon on Saturday.
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday night in Tel Aviv and in several smaller demonstrations across the country, demanding a ceasefire and the return of about 100 hostages still being held in Gaza. The protests, which happen every Saturday night, have attracted similar crowds compared to previous weeks despite the tense security situation on Israel’s northern border.