On Saturday (10 Aug), an Israeli airstrike on the Tabeen school compound in Gaza City killed around 100 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service, CNN reported.
According to reports, the school was sheltering displaced families, with approximately 350 families taking refuge there.
Various states have condemned the strike, while the Israeli military disputed the number of deaths. It added that 19 Hamas militants were among the dead.
Palestinian civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told a televised press conference that “there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women”. He added that there are unidentified remains.
Bassal said 350 families had been sheltering at the compound. Schools had largely been closed since the 7 Oct attack by Hamas on Israel.
He noted that the upper floor housing families and the lower floor, used as a mosque, were both hit. At the time of the strikes, dawn prayers were being held.
Source: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP via CNN
Director of the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, Fadel Naeem, told the Associated Press that the hospital received 70 bodies from the strike and the body parts of at least 10 others.
The Palestinian health ministry, run by Hamas, said another 47 people were wounded.
“We received some of the most serious injuries we encountered during the war,” he said.
Various groups including Arab states, Türkiye, France, Great Britain, and the European Union condemned the attack.
The United States said it was “deeply concerned”. A spokesman for the US National Security Council said: “We know Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimize civilian harm.”
US vice-president Kamala Harris told the media: “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed.”
She also called for a hostage deal and a ceasefire as the war deepened.
“According to a preliminary examination, the numbers published by the government media office in Gaza — which acts as a media arm of Hamas — are exaggerated and do not match the information available in the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike,” The Times of Israel reported the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) as saying.
The Israeli military noted that the strike was carried out using three precise munitions and that no severe damage was caused to the compound. It also claimed that it takes steps to ensure its strikes precisely target militants and limit harm to civilians.
Furthermore, it accused Hamas of using schools to conceal militants and operating from shelters and refuges, which violates international law.
Since the war began, millions of people in Gaza have been displaced from their homes. According to Al Jazeera, one such resident, named Maha Freih, has been displaced eight times since October.
“It’s only been a week since I came back home to rebuild [my home],” she said. “But I don’t think I’ll ever find my house again.”
We are being subjected to dreadfully wrong humiliation and suffering. We don’t know where to go. There is no safe place in the whole of the Gaza Strip. Whoever dares to say there is a safe zone is a liar.
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Featured image adapted from Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via The Times of Israel.
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