At least 17 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed on Tuesday when an Israeli airstrike hit a school sheltering displaced people east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, reported Xinhua, quoting Palestinian Civil Defense.
Photos from the scene showed the bodies of young girls among the dead. Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Xinhua that rescue teams were still searching the rubble, with entire families feared trapped beneath the debris.
Eyewitnesses said the airstrike struck without any warnings, destroying parts of the school and sending panic through the displaced people inside. Victims' bodies were scattered by the force of the explosion, they said, as smoke rose from the site and residents screamed for help.
Khalil Al-Daqran, a spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, said most of the injured arriving at the facility were in critical condition. "The situation at the hospital is catastrophic," he said, warning that the death toll could rise as more victims remain under the rubble.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee confirmed the airstrike, saying Israeli forces had targeted a Hamas command and control compound in central Gaza. In a statement, he said the facility was being used by militants to plan attacks and store weapons.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), along with the Shin Bet intelligence agency, carried out the strike based on what Adraee described as "precise intelligence." He said the compound housed "a number of armed terrorists."
Israel resumed major military operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States in January.
Gaza's health authorities said on Tuesday that 2,507 Palestinians had been killed and 6,711 wounded since the resumption of Israeli strikes, bringing the total death toll since the war began in October 2023 to 52,615, with 118,752 injured.
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
