EBN- At least 30 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a UN school packed with hundreds of displaced people in central Gaza early on Thursday.
Two missiles were fired at classrooms on the top floor of the school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, eyewitnesses reported.
Israel’s military said it “conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside” the school.
Rescue teams have been rushing the wounded and dead to a nearby hospital, saying that children were among the victims.
Footage on social media showed destroyed classrooms and bodies wrapped in shrouds at a morgue.
“Enough war! We have been displaced dozens of times. They killed our children while they were sleeping,” a woman injured in the attack screamed.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said jets had conducted a “precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an Unrwa school in the area of Nuseirat”.
It said it had killed Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terrorists” who took part in the 7 October attack on southern Israel.
At least 36,580 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The IDF said it had taken steps before the air strike to “reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians”.
Another massacre in less than 24 hours
Earlier, the Israeli army carried out new airstrikes over the eastern areas of Bureij refugee camp and the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where dozens of Palestinians were reported killed.
Residents reported intense bombardment and the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said at least 70 bodies – the majority women and children – had been brought to a local hospital since Tuesday.
MSF said its medical team on the ground had described the situation at Deir al-Balah’s al-Aqsa hospital – one of the only remaining functional health facilities in central Gaza – as “apocalyptic”.
