An Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza killed 10 people on Wednesday, an attack that Israel said targeted militants operating from within the complex.
Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza’s land.
Israel has also imposed a blockade on all goods into Gaza, including fuel and electricity, since the beginning of March.
Medics said the air strike on the Yaffa School in the Tuffah area of Gaza City set fire to tents and classrooms.
The Israeli military said Hamas and allied group Islamic Jihad were operating within the school and that it took precautions to reduce harm to civilians before it struck there.
Some furniture was still in flames several hours after the strike as people sifted through blackened classrooms and the schoolyard in search of their belongings.
“We were sleeping and suddenly something exploded, we started looking and found the whole school on fire, the tents here and there were on fire, everything was on fire,” said eyewitness, Um Mohammed al-Hwaiti.
“People were shouting and men were carrying people, charred (people), charred children, and were walking and saying: ‘Dear God, dear God, we have no one but you.’ What can we say? Dear God, only,” she said.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain jointly called on Israel to adhere to international law and allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
They also urged for the ceasefire to be restored and for remaining hostages held by militant group Hamas to be released.
“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change,” the ministers said in a statement.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein rejected the statement, asserting that there was no shortage of aid in Gaza, even though doctors and civilians say that medical supplies and food are running low.
INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, SOLAR POWER DAMAGED
Medics said at least 36 people had been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday.
The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli missile hit the upper building of the Durra Children’s Hospital in Gaza City, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar panel system that feeds the facility with power. No one was killed.
Gaza’s healthcare system is close to collapse due to Israel’s blockade, which it says is aimed at pressuring the Hamas militants who run Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war.
Hamas says it is prepared to free them only as part of a deal that ends the war, but it has rejected demands to lay down its arms.
The group on Wednesday released an edited video of hostage Omri Miran, 48, pleading for a deal to be made. Throughout the war, Hamas has released similar videos of hostages, which Israeli officials dismiss as psychological warfare.
Hamas’ 2023 attack killed 1,200 people and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza. Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrab,)
