More than 90 dead in Israeli raid on Gaza school, rescuers say

The Civil Defense in Gaza has announced On Saturday, 93 Palestinians including children were killed in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced people, an attack that sparked international condemnation after ten months of devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli army said that the targeted school in Gaza City ( north) was used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two Palestinian armed groups, to “carry out terrorist attacks.”

The raid, the toll of which cannot be independently verified, is one of the deadliest since the start of the war, which began with an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, carried out from the neighboring Gaza Strip.

The al-Tabi'een school in Gaza targeted before dawn was serving as a shelter for about 250 displaced people, mostly women and children, said its sources in the Hamas government, which denounced a “dangerous escalation.”

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said that “three missiles targeted two floors of the school and the (adjacent) mosque, killing 93 people, including 11 children and six women.”

A man sits amidst the rubble of a school hit by deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza City, August 10, 2024 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

“Dozens of people were injured and “there are unidentified body parts and missing people,” he said added.

Rescuers picked up bodies from a destroyed building, according to AFP footage that also showed crying relatives next to the bodies of children wrapped in white sheets.

– “Intolerable” –

Displaced Palestinians watch as first responders prepare to carry the bodies of those killed in Israeli strikes on a school in Gaza City on August 10 2024 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

“People were doing dawn prayers” at the time of the raid, a rescuer said. “The bodies were piled on top of each other.”

Woke up by the explosions, Sakr, a resident of Gaza, rushed to the scene. “I saw bodies of children in the street,” he said.

“Israel is committing genocide of Palestinians, one neighborhood at a time , one hospital at a time, one school at a time, one refugee camp at a time, one security zone at a time”, accused the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Fransesca Albanese, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, but not speaking on behalf of the organization.

A young girl cries after identifying a family member among those killed in Israeli strikes on a school in Gaza City, August 10, 2024. © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

Several countries as well as the European Union have condemned this attack, including France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“At least ten schools have been targeted in recent weeks. There is no justification for these massacres,” said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borell.

France has condemned an “intolerable number of civilian victims.” “Israel must respect international humanitarian law.”

A sworn enemy of Israel and ally of Hamas, Iran has denounced a “war crime.”

Men recite prayers near the bodies of people killed in an Israeli strike, in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 10, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

Another Israeli strike targeted the Nusseirat refugee camp (center) on Saturday, killing several people, whose bodies were taken to a hospital in Deir el-Balah. There, relatives gathered to pray near the bodies lying on the ground.

– 39,790 dead in Gaza according to Hamas –

An injured child cries in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, following an overnight Israeli strike, on August 10, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

After ten months of war, the Israeli army continues to bombard the besieged Palestinian territory, where almost all 2.4 million people have been displaced, and to fight and hunt down members of Hamas.

Israel has vowed to destroy the movement, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union, after the October 7 attack.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people abducted during the attack, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom have died, according to the army.

A man cries over the wrapped body of a child killed in a strike in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 10, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

The large-scale Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza has so far killed 39,790 people, according to data from the Hamas-led Gaza government's health ministry, which does not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters killed.

It has caused a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory, which the UN has warned is at risk of famine.

– Negotiations on August 15? –

The strike on the Gaza school came a day after Israel announced its agreement to resume indirect talks on August 15 on a truce linked to the release of the hostages.

Hamas has not yet responded.

A woman cries inside a school in Gaza City after it was hit by Israeli strikes, on August 10, 2024 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

On Thursday, the mediating countries – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – called for the resumption on this date of the discussions that have failed in recent months, while the international community fears a military escalation between Iran and its allies, on the one hand, and Israel, on the other.

Fears have redoubled after the assassination on July 31 in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, attributed to Israel, and the death on July 30 of the military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Fouad Chokr, killed in a strike near Beirut claimed by Israel.

Iran and its allies – Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemeni Houthi rebels – have threatened Israel with a “severe response”.

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