Over 100 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Airstrike on Gaza School
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – More than 100 Palestinians were killed after an Israeli airstrike targeted a school sheltering displaced people in the eastern Gaza Strip.
The brutal attack occurred on Saturday morning when Israeli forces bombed the al-Tabin school in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, according to Palestine’s official WAFA news agency.
Local sources reported that the airstrike hit while people were performing dawn prayers, leading to a significant number of casualties.
“The Israeli strikes targeted the displaced people while performing Fajr (dawn) prayers, which led to a rapid increase in the number of casualties,” stated the government media office in Gaza.
The media office condemned the attack, describing it as part of ongoing “genocide and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinian people.”
The statement also highlighted the difficulty faced by medical and emergency teams in retrieving the bodies due to the scale of the destruction.
The media office called on the international community and the United Nations to pressure Israel to halt what it described as a "crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing" against civilians in Gaza.
In a statement, the Israeli army confirmed the airstrike, claiming that the school was being used as a hideout by Hamas commanders.
Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army used three bombs weighing 2,000 pounds (907kg) each in its attack on the al-Tabin school in Gaza City’s al-Daraj neighbourhood.
The attack has killed at least 100 people by the most recent count, with that number expected to rise as al-Ahli Hospital struggles to cope with the severe injuries that resulted from the attack.
Al-Thawabta added that Israel was aware of the presence of displaced people inside the school.
At least 39,699 people have been killed and 91,722 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza.