Footage from the scene showed additional people being taken away and wrapped in blankets on the ground, as well as body parts lying about.
About 100 Palestinians were murdered in an Israeli bombardment on a school campus in Gaza City that was sheltering displaced Palestinian families, according to the Gaza Civil Emergency Service on Saturday. Israel, however, claimed that the death toll was inflated and that 19 terrorists were among the victims.
Footage from the scene showed additional people being taken away and wrapped in blankets on the ground, as well as body parts lying about. Among the wreckage were scorched mattresses and a child’s toy, as well as empty food tins submerged in a pool of blood.
Men can be seen praying over a dozen corpse bags that have been spread out on the Tabeen school complex’s floor in another video.
In independent declarations, the Hamas-run government media office and the territory’s Civil Emergency Service—which has a reliable track record when it comes to reporting casualty figures—stated that the complex had been targeted as its residents were praying at dawn.
The death toll, according to the Israeli military, was exaggerat
“There have been over 93 martyrs to date, six of them are women and 11 of whom are youngsters. Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Palestinian civil defense, stated at a televised press conference that there are unidentifiable corpses.
The majority of Gaza’s schools have been closed since the conflict started ten months ago, but tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been displaced have found refuge there.
According to Bassal, some 350 families—some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forced from their homes by Israel’s assault on Gaza—had taken refuge at the complex.
He claimed that the bottom level, which served as a mosque, and the top floor, which housed families, were both damaged.
The death toll, according to the Israeli military, was exaggerated.
The military released a statement saying, “The strike was carried out using three precise munitions, which can not cause the amount of damage that is being reported.”
It went on to say that the compound had not sustained any significant damage, and it cited overhead photographs and videos as evidence.
Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani stated on X that “the compound, along with the mosque that was targeted within it, functioned as an operational Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility.”
According to an Israeli army officer, the targeted area of the mosque was designated exclusively for males.
While Hamas and its allies dispute this, Israel claims that Palestinian terrorists blend in with Gaza’s civilian population and operate out of schools, hospitals, and designated humanitarian zones.
According to Hamas, the strike constituted a grave escalation and a horrifying crime. According to Izzat El-Reshiq of Hamas’s political office, not a single combatant was among the deceased.
According to medical personnel, two separate strikes on Saturday killed one person in adjacent Deir Al-Balah and three Palestinians in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza.
Three Palestinians were killed by an Israeli attack later that day in Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, where the Israeli army has been stationed since May, according to medical personnel.
In a related development, the Israeli military said that Walid Alsousi, the commander of general security for Hamas’s armed wing, had been killed in southern Gaza. Hamas did not immediately respond.
The Hezbollah armed organization in Lebanon, which receives Iranian support, claimed to have attacked military installations in northern Israel with a drone.
NEW ROUND OF CEASEFIRE TALKS
According to the White House, it was “deeply concerned” by the Israeli strike on the school facility in Gaza City and has contacted Israeli authorities to get further information.
Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, expressed his disgust at the school’s photos on X. Britain and France denounced the bombing.
Israel’s ally Washington was warned to stop “blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly” by Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates all denounced the strike.
It should be a turning point, according to senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, as mediators work to get ceasefire negotiations back on track.
The committee was looking over a fresh proposal for consideration, a Hamas spokesman told Reuters, without providing any details.
Egypt said that Israel’s inability to halt the war was demonstrated by the slaughter of civilians in Gaza. The strikes were referred to as a “horrific massacre” by Qatar’s foreign minister.
The leader of Hamas’s delegation in the indirect ceasefire negotiations with Israel, Khalil Al-Hayya, told Al-Jazeera television that condemnatory words were insufficient.
“Dismiss (Israeli) ambassadors, close down embassies, and sever ties with the occupation,” he stated.
A fresh round of ceasefire talks has been arranged by Egypt, the US, and Qatar for this Thursday, amid mounting concerns about a wider confrontation including Iran and its partner Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, said that a delegation will be sent. Netanyahu has stated that he will not call off the war until Hamas is no longer a threat to Israelis.
After Hamas fighters broke into southern Israel on October 7, murdering 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and taking more than 250 prisoners, according to Israeli counts, Israel began its attack on Gaza.
Since then, the Israeli onslaught in Gaza has claimed the lives of approximately 40,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry, which does not make a distinction between soldiers and civilians.
Health officials claim that civilians have made up the majority of the deaths, while Israel claims that at least one-third of them are combatants. Israel claims to have lost 329 soldiers in Gaza, while Hamas, which is supported by Iran, does not declare any losses.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy, Mark Potter, Ros Russell, Kevin Liffey, and Giles Elgood; reporting by Ali Swafta, Maayan Lubell, Nidal al-Mughrabi; Muhammad Al Gebaly, Hatem Maher, Ahmed Tolba, Maytaal Angel, and Kanishka Singh)
