At least 93 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school and mosque in Gaza, that sheltered displaced Palestinians, CNN reported citing local officials.
Gaza Civil Defence said people were performing dawn prayers at the Al-Tabi’in compound in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City when it was hit overnight into Saturday.
“We recovered at least 90 people who had been killed,” spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told CNN, adding that “many of them are torn apart, many are still unidentified.”
In a confirmation to CNN, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said that it hit the school. They added that its air force “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control center embedded” in the building.
The IDF, according to CNN stated that it took “numerous steps” before conducting the airstrike “to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information.”
Saturday’s strike is the fifth on a school in Gaza by the Israeli military since last Sunday.
In a statement released on August 5, the UN Human Rights Office stated that it was “horrified by the unfolding pattern” of strikes on Gazan schools and that “such attacks are escalating.”
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli military activity in the region has resulted in about 40,000 Palestinian deaths and over 90,000 injuries, reported CNN.
According to UN estimates, as of the beginning of July, about 2 million people–nearly the entire population–had been forced to leave the Gaza strip amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The conflict in Gaza escalated after the October 7 attack by Hamas, where about 2,500 terrorists breached the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, leading to casualties and the seizure of hostages.
Israel has characterised its Gaza offensive as targeting Hamas’ infrastructure with the goal of eliminating the entire terror group while making efforts to minimize civilian casualties. (ANI)
