At least 32 people were killed and another 55 injured – some of them left with horrendous burns – after an Israeli air stroke hit a school in Gaza where women and children were sleeping
An Israeli air strike has hit a school inside Gaza with several children burned alive. At least 32 people were killed and another 55 injured – some of them left with horrendous burns. Fires broke out inside three classrooms in the school which was being used to shelter displaced families. Faris Afana, the ambulance service manager for Northern Gaza, said he arrived at the scene with crews to find the school ablaze.
He said: ‘There were sleeping children and women in those classrooms. Some of them were screaming but we couldn’t rescue them due to the fires. I cannot describe what we saw due to how horrific it was.” Local resident Rami Rafiq said: Flames were everywhere. I saw charred bodies lying on the ground. My son fainted when he saw the horrific scene.’ Horrific video footage posted online showed large fires consuming parts of the school.
Graphic images showed severely burned victims, including children, and survivors suffering critical injuries. Civil defence crews said they spent hours searching to pull victims from under the rubble. They said they managed to recover the charred bodies of a number of mums and children, describing ‘very distressing, unbearable scenes’. The Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City had been housing hundreds of displaced people from the town of Beit Lahia.
The Israeli military (IDF) said it had targeted “‘Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control centre”. The IDF said the area was being used: “by the terrorists to plan… attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops’ It accused Hamas of using “the Gazan population as human shields.’ Local reports said among the dead was Mohammad Al-Kasih, the head of investigations for the Hamas police in northern Gaza, along with his wife and children. The Hamas-led government media office described the school attack on school as a ‘brutal massacre.’ A spokesman said it was: ‘a direct extension of the crime of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Medical staff are under tremendous pressure, face a severe shortage of medical supplies, the closure of crossings to the wounded and sick, and the prevention of the entry of fuel, food, medicine, and treatment, exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.’
Separately, a strike on a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza killed 19 people, according to the director of al-Ahli hospital Dr Fadel el-Naim. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said two of its staff were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis. The killing of Ibrahim Eid, a weapon contamination officer, and Ahmad Abu Hilal, a security guard at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah “points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza”, the ICRC said, repeating its call for a ceasefire. Rachel Cummings, humanitarian director with Save the Children, described the situation as “desperate and dire” and said it is unimaginable how it feels to be a child in Gaza after more than 11 weeks of a total aid blockade.
She said: ‘I see children every day walking the streets trying to find food with empty bowls, trying to find water with empty bottles in hand. We have mothers telling us how they are trying to keep their children alive, how they’re talking to bulk it out with grass or dirty water, knowing that could result in their child becoming sick.’ It has emerged that Hamas has executed four men for looting aid trucks. According to one source, the four who were executed were involved in an incident last week when six security officials were killed by an Israeli airstrike as they were working to prevent gang members from hijacking aid trucks. The source said: ‘The four criminals, who were executed, were involved in the crimes of looting and causing the death of members of a force tasked with securing aid trucks.’
According to a statement issued by an umbrella group identifying itself as the “Palestinian Resistance”, seven others were also being pursued. Israel had blocked all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza for two and a half months before trickling aid back into the region. Aid groups had warned that their deliveries were being looted, and then blamed Israel for causing such a desperate situation.
Hamas has agreed to a proposal made by the US special envoy Steve Witkoff for a ceasefire, according to a Palestinian official The new proposal, which is conditional to the release of ten hostages and 70 days of truce, was received by Hamas through mediators. The source told Reuters: “The proposal includes the release of ten living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in two groups in return for a 70-day ceasefire and a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. It would also be dependent on the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners There was no immediate comment from Israel.