AT least 16 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack on a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip, the Gaza Government Media Office said, as Israel continues to pound the besieged coastal territory.
In a statement on Saturday, the Government Media Office said more than 75 people also were injured in the attack on al-Jaouni school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.
“We condemn the Israeli occupation [for] committing these ongoing crimes and massacres against civilians, children and women,” it said.
The Nuseirat facility, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is the latest school to be bombed by the Israeli military since the Gaza war began in early October.
At least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since October 7 and the besieged enclave faces dire shortages of food, water, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.
On Saturday, dozens of Palestinians, including five journalists, were killed as the Israeli military stepped up its bombardment of the territory.
Videos taken at the scene of the attack on the UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat showed twisted metal at the collapsed building. A young boy could be seen sifting through pools of blood on the ground.
Footage shot at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency also showed children and young people being rushed from ambulances.
They included a girl with a bandaged arm, another with a bloodied face and a boy bandage across his head. Emergency workers also tried to cover two bodies as they were quickly brought into the medical complex.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement that 50 injured Palestinians were taken to the hospital.
In a statement shared on social media on Saturday night, the Israeli army said its air force “struck several terrorists” in the area of al-Jaouni school.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said hundreds of Palestinian families had sought shelter at the school after they were forced to flee Israel’s bombardment in other parts of Gaza.
The families “chose the middle area [of the Gaza Strip] because Israeli forces said the middle area is a safe zone”, Khoudary said.