GAZA: More than 100 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a Gaza school sheltering displaced people, the territory’s government said on Saturday.
The strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing dawn prayers, leading to many casualties, the media office said in a statement. Medics had not yet been able to reach all the bodies, it said.
There was no immediate information from Gaza health authorities. Gaza’s civil defence agency said the death toll from the latest Israeli strike had risen to more than 90.
AFP could not independently verify the toll which, if confirmed, would appear to be one of the largest from a single strike during more than 10 months of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza against Hamas.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered on the ground and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets on the floor. Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood and burnt mattresses and a child’s doll among the debris.
“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” said the spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence, Mahmoud Bassal, in a televised news conference.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force targeted a command and control centre where Hamas fighters were allegedly hiding.
Hamas said the strike was a horrific crime and a serious escalation.
Saturday’s incident brings to at least 14 the number of schools struck in Gaza since July 6, killing more than 280 according to an AFP tally of tolls previously given by officials in the territory.
AFPTV live images from the scene showed a large complex with a courtyard where debris lay inside and out. Part of the structure appeared to be a mosque, the upper story of which was partially blown out and charred.
Images showed white-shrouded bodies, blood stains on the ground, and smoke rising from the rubble.
Around 6,000 people had been sheltering at the compound, he said. The Gaza health ministry has so far not provided casualty details.
Israel alleges that Hamas embeds among Gaza’s civilians, operating from within schools, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones — which Hamas denies.
An Israeli military spokesperson claimed that around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters were operating out of the school.
“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.
He added that casualty figures given by the Gaza media office “do not align with the information held by the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces), the precise munitions used and the accuracy of the strike”.
The military insisted it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians, “including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information”.
It did not immediately comment on the casualty reports from Gaza.
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, urged Israel’s ally Washington to put an end to the “blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the Israeli strike and said that the attack upon a children’s school was barbarity which had no historical precedent.
“Israel has crossed all limits in its open aggression,” the PM Office said in a press release.
The prime minister called upon the international community, including the United Nations, to take practical steps to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression.
He reiterated Pakistan’s demand to hold Israeli leadership and its armed forces accountable for the genocide of Palestinians and war crimes.
“Israel should be given strict punishment for its gruesome crimes,” he said and stressed upon implementation of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) verdict against Israel.
The prime minister also reaffirmed Pakistan’s all-out moral and diplomatic support to Palestinians.
Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia also condemned the strike, which came as mediators were pushing to resume ceasefire talks. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the strike should serve as a turning point in their efforts.
Egypt said that the killing of Gaza civilians showed Israel had no intention to end the conflict. Qatar’s foreign ministry described the strike as a “horrific massacre”.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed horror at the deadly strike. “Horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike, with reportedly dozens of Palestinian victims. At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres,” Borrell wrote on X.
Egypt, the United States and Qatar have scheduled a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday, as fears are growing of a broader conflict, involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he will not end hostilities until Hamas no longer poses a threat to Israelis, said a delegation would be sent to the August 15 talks.
A Hamas official told Reuters that the group was studying the new offer for talks but did not elaborate.
Israel launched its offensive on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilians. Israel, which has lost 329 in Gaza, says at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters. Hamas does not publish its casualties.
