AN Israeli air attack on a UN-run school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp killed at least 40 people, mainly women and children, according to local government officials.
The raid on Thursday came after the military announced a new ground and air assault in several refugee camps in central Gaza.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering at al-Sardi school, which is linked to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), when it came under attack.
Palestinian group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, condemned the predawn attack as a “horrible massacre”.
At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah Palestinian boy Imad al-Maqadmeh lay on the floor, his swollen face badly bruised and bleeding. He said he lost his father in the strike.
“What did we do? There are no armed people in the school. The ones there are children, playing. We play together… Why did they bomb us?” he said in the video obtained by Reuters.
In images of the dead laid out at the hospital surrounded by wailing mourners, bodies were mostly wrapped in shrouds or carpets, making it impossible to determine from the video if they included non-combatants.
Meanwhile, Spain says it will join the case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza.
At least 36,654 people have been killed and 83,309 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.
