Israel’s military attacked a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City early Saturday, killing around a hundred civilians, according to reports. Israel said it was targeting Hamas militants.
“The death toll is now between 90 to 100, and there are dozens more wounded,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense agency, told AFP. “Three Israeli rockets hit the school that was housing displaced Palestinians,” he was quoted as saying.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged the attack, saying it struck an “active” Hamas command center, Israeli media reported. The IDF said the reported number of casualties appeared to be inflated.
The attack in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood came during dawn prayers at the school, and the deaths were mostly women and children. Videos and images shared by international and local media show bodies scattered on the floor, families mourning and young men and children searching through the rubble.
This is the fifth attack by the IDF on schools in Gaza since the beginning of August.
“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time,” the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said in a post on X.
Egypt’s foreign ministry also condemned the strike in a statement cited by the Middle East news agency, saying Israel has no “political will” to end the war. Egypt, along with Qatar and the U.S., is helping to mediate cease-fire talks that are planned to resume on Aug. 15.
Meanwhile, seven civilians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian media. Displaced Palestinians have been fleeing the devastated city after an Israeli evacuation order on Friday.
