CAIRO - More than 100 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a Gaza school sheltering displaced people, the official Palestinian news agency said on Saturday, while the Israeli army said it had hit a Hamas command centre.
“The Israeli strikes targeted the displaced people while performing Fajr (dawn) prayers, a matter led to a rapid increase in the number of casualties,” the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said in a statement.
In its statement, the Israeli army said its air forces “struck command and control centre served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders.”
“The IAF precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the Al-Taba’een school and located adjacent to a mosque in Daraj Tuffah, which serves as a shelter for the residents of Gaza City.”
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information,” it added.
Around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating from the school, an Israeli military spokesperson said in an update.
“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.
He added that casualty figures given by the Hamas-run media office “do not align with the information held by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces), the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike”.
However, he did not specify how many suspected militants were killed.
On Thursday, Israeli forces stepped up airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 40 people, Palestinian medics said.
Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli strikes on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City, on Aug 3, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)
