Death toll from Israeli strike on UN school rises to 37

An Israeli airstrike early Thursday targeted a school in central Gaza, killing over 37 people, including at least 23 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military claimed that Hamas militants were operating from within the school.

This strike followed the military’s announcement of a new ground and air assault in several refugee camps in central Gaza, aiming to pursue Hamas militants who have reportedly regrouped there. This operation highlights the ongoing resilience of Hamas despite Israel’s extensive military campaign over the past nearly eight months.

Witnesses and hospital officials reported that the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School, managed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The school was sheltering Palestinians displaced by Israeli offensives in northern Gaza.

Ayman Rashed, a displaced man at the school, described the chaos, saying missiles hit classrooms on the second and third floors where families were sheltering. He recounted carrying out five dead bodies, including an elderly man and two children.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received at least 33 bodies from the strike, with 14 children and nine women among the dead. Another strike on a house overnight killed six more people. These strikes occurred in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in Gaza.

Mohammed al-Kareem, another displaced Palestinian near the hospital, described frantic scenes as people rushed the wounded into the emergency department. Videos showed wounded individuals being treated on the floor of the overcrowded hospital.

The Israeli military stated that Hamas had embedded a “compound” within the school, using it as a shelter to plan attacks. They released a photo indicating where militants were located in the school.

UNRWA schools have been used as shelters throughout the war, which has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. Israel’s campaign began after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed approximately 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. In retaliation, Israel’s offensive has resulted in over 36,000 Palestinian deaths, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The United States supports a phased ceasefire and hostage release plan proposed by President Joe Biden, though Israel insists it will continue the war until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed. Hamas demands a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Doctors Without Borders reported at least 70 bodies and 300 wounded people were brought to a hospital in central Gaza following Israeli strikes. Gaza’s health system is on the brink of collapse, struggling to treat the influx of patients with limited resources.

Israel has launched airstrikes across Gaza since the war began, with massive ground operations leaving much of Gaza City and Khan Younis in ruins. Troops recently pulled out of the Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza, where battles had killed 360 people, mostly women and children.

Israel’s military is now operating in central Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where over 1 million people have fled since the start of the offensive.