More than 60 killed in Israeli air strike on school in Gaza City, officials say

Palestinian health authorities say an Israeli air strike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Saturday morning, killing more than 60 people.

The health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service said the strike on the Tabeen school in central Gaza City also wounded 47 people.

The Israeli military acknowledged the strike, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school.

It did not provide evidence, and Hamas denied having a base at the school.

It is the latest Israeli strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war started some 10 months ago.

The facility, like almost all of Gaza Strip’s schools, has been used as a shelter for people who have been forced to flee their homes by the war.

Video from the scene showed walls blown out on the ground level of a large building. Concrete chunks and twisted metal lay on top of the blood-soaked floor, along with clothing, toppled furniture and other debris. A blackened car with the windows blown out was also shown covered in rubble.

The strike hit without warning in the early morning before sunrise as people were praying at a mosque inside the school, according to Abu Anas, a witness who worked to rescue people.

“There were people praying, there were people washing and there were people upstairs sleeping, including children, women and old people,” he said.

“The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile, and the second. We recovered them as body parts.”

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defence first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said three missiles ripped through the school and the mosque inside, where about 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter from the war.

Many of the dead were unrecognisable, he said, adding that he expected the death toll to rise. Many of the casualties were women and children, he added.

Israeli intelligence indicated about 20 militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including senior commanders, were using the Tabeen school compound to plan attacks on Israeli forces, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman said on the social media platform X.

Izzat al-Rishq, a top Hamas official, denied there were militants in the school.

Lt Col Shoshani also questioned the casualty numbers issued by the Palestinian health ministry.

Israel said the targeted school was located next to a mosque serving as a shelter for Gaza City residents.

A cameraman working for The Associated Press said, however, said that the mosque and the classrooms were in one building, with the prayer hall on the ground floor and the school above it. A missile appeared to have penetrated through the floor of the classrooms to the mosque below and then exploded, according to the cameraman.

The strike came as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for the two parties to achieve a ceasefire agreement that could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of top Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Egypt, which borders Gaza and serves as a key mediator, said the strike on the school showed Israel had no intention of reaching a cease-fire deal and ending the war.

Neighbouring Jordan also condemned the attack, calling it a “blatant violation” of international law.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 others.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others, according to the enclave’s health ministry.

More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, fleeing repeatedly across the territory to escape offensives.

Most are now crowded into ramshackle tent camps in an area of about 50 square kilometres (19 square miles) on the Gaza coast.

According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 schools in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged in the war as of July 6.

In June, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials.