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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza Metropolis early Saturday, killing a minimum of 80 individuals, Palestinian well being authorities mentioned, in one of many deadliest strikes within the 10-month-old warfare between Israel and Hamas.
The Israeli navy acknowledged the strike, claiming it hit a Hamas command heart inside the college. Hamas denied that.
The strike on the Tabeen college in central Gaza Metropolis additionally wounded 47 individuals, the Well being Ministry mentioned. The power, like nearly all of Gaza’s faculties, has been used as a shelter for individuals who have been compelled to flee their houses by the warfare.
Video from the scene confirmed partitions blown out on the bottom stage of a big constructing. Concrete chunks and twisted metallic lay atop the blood-soaked flooring, together with clothes, toppled furnishings and different particles. A blackened automotive with the home windows blown out was lined in rubble.
Fadel Naeem, director of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza Metropolis, informed The Related Press that the power acquired 70 our bodies of these killed within the strike and the physique elements of a minimum of 10 others.
The strike hit with out warning within the early morning earlier than dawn as individuals had been praying at a mosque inside the varsity, in accordance with Abu Anas, a witness who labored to rescue individuals.
“There have been individuals praying, there have been individuals washing and there have been individuals upstairs sleeping, together with kids, ladies and outdated individuals,” he mentioned. “The missile fell on them with out warning. The primary missile, and the second. We recovered them as physique elements.”
Three missiles ripped by means of the varsity and the mosque inside, the place about 6,000 displaced individuals had been taking shelter from the warfare, mentioned Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Civil Protection first responders who function underneath the Hamas-run native authorities.
Most of the lifeless had been unrecognizable, he mentioned, including that he anticipated the dying toll to rise. Most of the casualties had been ladies and kids, he mentioned.
In keeping with the United Nations, 477 out of 564 faculties in Gaza had been immediately hit or broken within the warfare as of July 6. In June, an Israeli strike on a college sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed a minimum of 33 individuals, together with 12 ladies and kids, in accordance with native well being officers.
On Thursday Israel’s navy hit two faculties sheltering displaced individuals in japanese Gaza Metropolis, killing a minimum of 15 individuals, in accordance with hospital officers.
Israel has blamed civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the group endangers noncombatants through the use of faculties and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations and assaults.
Israeli intelligence indicated about 20 militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, together with senior commanders, had been utilizing the Tabeen college compound to plan assaults on Israeli forces, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli navy spokesman mentioned in a press release on the social media platform X.
Izzat al-Rishq, a prime Hamas official denied there have been militants within the college.
Shoshani additionally questioned the casualty numbers issued by the Palestinian Well being Ministry.
Israel mentioned the focused college was situated subsequent to a mosque serving as a shelter for Gaza Metropolis residents.
A cameraman working for The Related Press mentioned, nonetheless, that the mosque and the lecture rooms had been in a single constructing, with the prayer corridor on the bottom flooring and the varsity above it. A missile appeared to have penetrated by means of the ground of the lecture rooms to the mosque beneath after which exploded, in accordance with the cameraman.
The strike got here as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for the 2 events to realize a cease-fire settlement that might assist calm hovering tensions within the area following the assassination of prime Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
Egypt, which borders Gaza and serves as a key mediator, mentioned the strike on the varsity confirmed Israel had no intention of reaching a cease-fire deal and ending the warfare.
Neighboring Jordan additionally condemned the assault, calling it a “blatant violation” of worldwide regulation.
Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza has killed greater than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded greater than 91,700 others, in accordance with the enclave’s Well being Ministry. The warfare was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault, through which militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing round 1,200 individuals and abducting 250 others.
Greater than 1.9 million of Gaza’s prewar inhabitants of two.3 million have been pushed from their houses, fleeing repeatedly throughout the territory to flee offensives. Most at the moment are crowded into ramshackle tent camps in an space of about 50 sq. kilometers (19 sq. miles) on the Gaza coast.
