Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Saturday that an Israeli strike targeted a school in Gaza City, killing 90-100 people, while the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command center.
“40 people were martyred and dozens were injured in Israeli bombing of al-Taba’in school in al-Sahaba area of Gaza city,” agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said in a post on Telegram.
Bussal described the incident as “a terrible massacre”, with some of the bodies set on fire.
“The staff is trying to control the fire, retrieve the bodies of the martyrs and rescue the injured,” he said.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had “carried out a precision strike against Hamas terrorists operating in the Hamas command and control center located at the Al-Tabayeen school.”
On Thursday, the agency said Israeli strikes hit two schools in Gaza City, killing more than 18 people.
The Israeli military said at the time that it had attacked Hamas command centers.
The war in Gaza began with a Hamas attack on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, 39 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
At least 39,699 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, though the ministry did not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian group in retaliation for the October attack, but during the 10-month war in the Gaza Strip, the army has found itself returning to some areas to fight the militants.
The Israeli military said on Friday that troops were conducting operations around the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, from which troops withdrew in April after months of fierce fighting with Hamas.
After the army issued an order to evacuate parts of Khan Yunis, AFPTV pictures showed crowds of people flowing through dusty, damaged streets on foot or on donkeys and motorbike carts carrying piles of belongings.
UN spokeswoman Florencia Soto Nino said that as of Friday, the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) had estimated that “at least 60,000 Palestinians may have moved toward western Khan Younis in the past 72 hours.”
The Gaza war has already drawn in Iran-allied groups in the region, and fears of a wider war across the Middle East have risen after Hamas vowed to avenge the killing of two senior militants, including its political leader.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
