Gaza war: Israeli strike on school reportedly kills 22

According to the UN, an estimated 1.9 million people – 90% of Gaza’s population – have been forced to flee their homes, including some who have been displaced up to 10 times.

Thousands were reportedly sheltering at Abu Oraiban School, which is run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), when it was it struck on Sunday afternoon.

A displaced woman told BBC Arabic that she had been lighting a fire to cook in a corridor when a nearby room was hit.

“As soon as the explosion occurred the walls of the room collapsed on us,” she said. “I saw a little boy whose leg was bleeding and a dismembered corpse which people covered with blankets. I also saw a little boy lying in a pool of blood, with his whole face bleeding.”

She added: “I quickly ran out of the school. I found my aunt at the school gate, hugging her burnt young son. When I left the school, I saw many injured people lying on the ground and bodies torn to pieces.”

Another resident said his family had been living at the school for six months because UN facilities were supposed to be safe.

“There are no armed men and no reason to strike schools this way,” he added. “The dead and injured people are mainly women and children staying at this school.”

Video footage filmed by a freelance cameraman working for BBC Arabic later on Sunday showed hundreds of people walking past the rubble of a destroyed structure in one corner of the school compound. A heavily damaged staircase could also be seen through two large holes in a wall of the adjoining three-storey school building.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hamas fighters had used the school as “a hideout and operational infrastructure” from which attacks against its troops were directed and carried out.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence,” it added.

The IDF also accused Hamas of systematically violating international law by exploiting civilians and civilian structures as “human shields” – an accusation the group has denied.

A spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence force, told AFP news agency on Sunday evening that 15 people were killed and that most were women and children.

On Monday, the health ministry said the death toll had risen to 22, but it did not provide any further details.

Hamas condemned the Israeli strike as what it called an “extension of the genocide” against displaced Palestinians.

The IDF has acknowledged carrying out five strikes on or near to schools sheltering displaced people since 6 July. It has said they targeted Hamas politicians, police officers and fighters using them as bases.

Last Tuesday, hospital officials said at least 29 people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people outside a school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, near the southern city of Khan Younis.

A total of 20 people, including a senior Hamas government official, were reportedly killed in three earlier strikes at two other Unrwa-run schools in Nuseirat and a church-run school in Gaza City.