On Saturday, at least 22 Palestinians were reported killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced individuals in southern Gaza City. The health ministry in Gaza confirmed many women and children among the victims, with reports indicating that 13 children and six women were among the dead.
The Israeli military claims the strike targeted a Hamas command center located within the compound, which had formerly been a school. They repeated accusations of claims that Hamas makes intentional use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes, which Hamas denies.
Eyewitness reports reveal the general mess nature in the aftermath scene as one of them remembers that at the time of the attack women and children were seen playing on the school’s playground. Some of the victims were carted away on donkey carts while others were taken away by ambulances, which were unable to access the site as hostilities were still ongoing at the time.
In another development, the Gaza health ministry reported that four health workers were killed when an Israeli strike hit the warehouses of the ministry. The military said its operations in Rafah have killed many Hamas operatives and dismantled military infrastructure.
Still, efforts at achieving a truce are being complicated by Israel’s insistence on imposing its sovereignty over its southern border with Egypt, one of the major hindrances to reaching an agreement. Hamas, for its part, has even stated that its goal is “to achieve a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces”; however, only then will hostilities likely end when Hamas is completely destroyed.
This is part of the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which worsened over the last few weeks following a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, causing huge casualties on both sides. According to estimations, casualties included the death of more than 41,000 Palestinians since the outbreak of conflict, together with the displacement of most of Gaza’s population.
