Gaza carnage: Scores killed as Israel steps up bombing of schools

An Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat camp of central Gaza has killed at least 17 people, mostly women and children, as the weeks-long siege and heavy bombardment of the strip continue with wanton ferocity. 

At least 17 Palestinians were killed and 52 people were also injured on Thursday in the Israeli strike on al-Shuhada school in Nuseirat camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical officials.

"Thousands of displaced people were sheltering in the school, most of them children and women," a statement issued by the government media office in Gaza said.

Nine children, including an 11-month-old, and three women were among the killed, as reported by Nuseirat's al-Awda Hospital, which treated the victims.

The toll was confirmed by al-Awda Hospital, which said the school had been hit by an airstrike.

The media office said direct Israeli airstrikes targeting the Shuhada school have increased the total number of displacement centers affected since the onset of the war to 196.

At least 34 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since early morning, according to medical sources, with 27 of them killed in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces have killed at least 55 Palestinians and wounded 132 in the past 24 hours across Gaza.

This brings the death toll in the besieged Palestinian enclave since October 7, 2023 to 42,847, with more than 100,544 wounded and at least 10,000 still missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

Health officials report that over 60 percent of the victims are children and women.

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The Israeli military claimed without providing any evidence that it had hit a Hamas “command and control center” embedded in a compound formerly used as a school in Nuseirat. 

The Hamas resistance group has repeatedly denied Israel’s allegations that its fighters hide in shelters or use them as bases for attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza.

Since the onset of the war on Gaza and especially over the past few months, Israeli forces have conducted strikes on multiple schools repurposed as shelters throughout Gaza, asserting that their operations were aimed at Hamas fighters.

On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike targeted al-Zahraa school, located east of Gaza City, killing three Palestinians, as reported by a medical source from the Baptist Hospital.

Schools in Gaza are currently sheltering thousands of displaced families, with many taking refuge in classrooms and others setting up tents in the school’s courtyards.

Palestine says Israeli regime pushing Palestinians in northern Gaza to ‘certain death’

Palestine

The northern Gaza Strip remains under a relentless siege, as Israeli forces continue to demolish homes and launch airstrikes besides blocking food and humanitarian aid for the 20th consecutive day.

Meanwhile, many of the homes have been flattened completely with people inside them, in addition to the Red Cross and civil defense departments.

"Since the start of the military operation in northern Gaza more than 770 people have been killed," said Mahmud Bassal, spokesperson for Gaza's civil defense agency, who warned on Thursday that the death toll may increase as many remain trapped beneath the debris.

Lack of food, medicine and other necessities are also taking their toll on the Gaza population.

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