Israel says jets targeting 'Hamas compound' have hit a school in Gaza
Two attacks in Nuseirat, central Gaza, have killed dozens of people after they struck a UN-run school that was being used as a shelter - and a nearby home.
Thursday 6 June 2024 12:54, UK
An Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza has killed dozens of people, including children, local officials say.
Israel said it was targeting a "Hamas compound" when it struck the school-turned-shelter.
Hamas-affiliated media said the airstrike killed at least 39 people, with local health officials saying that included 23 women and children.
There was conflicting information about the strikes in the Nuseirat area early on Thursday morning, with a second on a nearby home.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck the school run by the United Nations agency providing aid to the Palestinians, known by the acronym UNRWA.
It said, without immediately offering evidence, that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad used the school as a cover for their operations.
An Israeli military spokesperson later said that 20 to 30 fighters were in the school.
"Before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information," the Israeli military said.
Ismail al Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza, rejected Israel's claims - which he alleged were "to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people".
Video and images from the area showed body bags lined up outside the morgue of a nearby hospital after the strike at the al Sardi School in the refugee camp in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah received at least 30 bodies from the strike, according to hospital records and an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
Mohammed al Kareem, a displaced Palestinian sheltering near the hospital, described chaotic scenes outside the facility.
He said the wounded were rushed into the emergency department and he saw people searching for loved ones among the bodies in the hospital courtyard.
"The situation is tragic," he said.
Videos circulating online appeared to show several injured Palestinians being treated on the hospital floor.
A funeral was held for some of the dead, with mourners gathering around the bodies of those killed.
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Eight months into Israel's offensive in Gaza, UNRWA schools in the region now function as shelters as the war has displaced most of the 2.3 million people in the territory.
Israel says it takes measures to avoid harming civilians and blames any deaths on Hamas, and how the group positions its fighters, tunnels and weapons in residential areas.
In an apparent blow to a truce proposal touted last week by US President Joe Biden, the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday said the group would demand a permanent end to the war in Gaza and Israeli withdrawal as part of a ceasefire plan.
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Hospitals on the brink
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said its forces were operating "both above and below ground" in eastern parts of Deir Al Balah and the Bureij refugee camp - also in central Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders said that at least 70 bodies and 300 injured people, mostly women and children, were brought to a hospital in central Gaza following a wave of Israeli strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The international charity said in a social media post the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital was struggling to treat the "huge influx of patients, many of them arriving with severe burns, shrapnel wounds, fractures, and other traumatic injuries".
Gaza's health system has nearly collapsed due to the pressure of the war.
The hospital, which was already treating around 700 people before the strikes this week, said one of its two electrical generators had stopped working, threatening its ability to operate ventilators and incubators for premature babies.
International pressure mounts
International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed and on Hamas to accept the terms of the ceasefire agreements.
Spain announced on Thursday it intends to ask a UN court for permission to join South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide as more than 36,000 Palestinians have now died, according to the Gaza health ministry, since Hamas's 7 October multi-pronged attack on Israel.
Meanwhile, the US, UK, Canada, Germany and several other nations called on Hamas and Israel to accept Mr Biden's proposal for a permanent ceasefire.
A joint statement read: "At this decisive moment, we call on the leaders of Israel as well as Hamas to make whatever final compromises are necessary to close this deal."
The statement was also signed by the leaders of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Denmark, France, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Thailand, according to the White House.
'A grim familiar pattern'
Analysis by Alex Rossi, international correspondent
The war in Gaza keeps grinding on in a depressingly grim familiar pattern.
Overnight an IDF strike on a school killed dozens. Palestinian media say women and children were among the dead.
The assault happened in the early hours at about 1.30am.
The people sheltering there had been displaced from other parts of the strip. Videos on social media show bodies wrapped in white shrouds.
Israeli military says it had taken measures to avoid civilian casualties and was targeting militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were operating from the school.
The strike comes as Israel has renewed its offensive in central Gaza and amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation. Aid agencies are again warning famine is imminent and in some places has already begun.
But the chances of a ceasefire appear more remote, even as the negotiations continue in Qatar. Hamas has described the Israeli position as outlined by President Joe Biden last week as "contradictory" and it does not guarantee a "permanent ceasefire" - one of the group's conditions.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has indicated Israel would be amenable to a six-week ceasefire but has maintained the destruction of Hamas as a military and governing entity is still Israel's goal.