GAZA: Civil defence rescuers in Gaza City said an Israeli strike on Sunday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 7 people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted gunmen. The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.
Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported "seven martyrs and a number of wounded, including serious cases, as a result of Israeli shelling of Kafr Qasim School" in the Al Shati refugee camp. He said hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering there.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Palestinian groups operating from the school grounds, and that its forces had taken steps "to mitigate the risk of harm to uninvolved civilians" including by using "precise munitions" and surveillance.
It said the air force had "conducted a precise strike on Hamas fighters in the northern Gaza Strip" who were "operating from a compound" at the school complex. The military statement did not provide information on casualties.
Sunday's attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year. On Saturday the civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on another school-turned-shelter, also in Gaza City, had killed 21 people. The military said it was targeting militants.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian group.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Sunday that at least 41,431 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 12th month.
The toll includes 40 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 95,818 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
Meanwhile, Hundreds of thousands of people sought shelter from Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Sunday, the military said, as a UN official warned of imminent regional "catastrophe" from the worsening violence. Israel has signalled its intention to turn its focus to Iran-backed Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border fire that began with the outbreak of the war. — AFP
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