In yet another incident of Israeli aggression in war-torn Gaza, Israeli military on Saturday evening launched an airstrike on a school that was sheltering displaced Palestinian families.
This incident marks the second time in just one hour that Israeli forces targeted the same location, leading to significant casualties among civilians including children, bringing the total death toll to 16, with scores of others injured and several people still missing under the rubble.
The airstrike occurred on Hamama School which was utilised for sheltering displaced people in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
In a statement, the Palestinian Civil Defense said that the fresh attack on Hamama School killed six more displaced people and injured scores more, some of them being in “serious” condition.
As per the statement, Civil Defense teams are having difficulty retrieving more victims due to the renewed bombing in the same location.
“Following the first airstrike, Israeli aircraft bombed the same school and its surroundings with three missiles,” the Defense minister stated.
In an earlier statement on Telegram, the Civil Defense stated, “Some 10 Palestinians were martyred and several others were injured by Israeli occupation (forces) warplanes that targeted a school sheltering displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in northern Gaza City,” Anadolu reported.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the bombing destroyed several classrooms at the school, which is overcrowded with displaced Palestinians.
The Israeli military admitted in a statement that it attacked the school in northern Gaza, claiming that Hamas was using it as a “weapons storage”. However, Hamas has denied the accusations, asserting that the school was solely a shelter for civilians.
The fighter group described Israeli accusations as “blatant lies,” and said that the Israeli government is justifying targeting the schools and refugee camps.
After almost 10 months of war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
