Israeli strike on school in Gaza City kills at least 22, Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says
An Israeli military strike on a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City on Saturday killed at least 22 people, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Meanwhile, Israel said the attack targeted a Hamas militant group command center.
The strike at the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City injured another 30, the Gaza health ministry said, adding that most of those killed were women and children.
The Israeli army said it struck a Hamas "command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served" as a school, repeating an accusation that the group uses civilian facilities for military purposes. Hamas denies that.
The Israel Defense Forces said that prior to the attack, "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians."
"The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law by operating from inside civilian infrastructure," the army said.
Video footage from the site showed blasted walls, wrecked and burnt furniture, and holes in the ceiling of one room.
"The women and their children were sitting in the playground of the school, the kids were playing, and suddenly two rockets hit them," one witness Said Al-Malahi told Reuters.
The war began nearly one year ago when Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between fighters and civilians.
Elsewhere, Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah traded fire in the latest escalation between the two. The tit-for-tat strikes have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.