At least ten Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced families west of Gaza City, the enclave’s civil defence authorities said.
Several other people were injured in the attack that targeted the Mustafa Hafez School in the al-Rimal neighborhood, western Gaza City, which shelters hundreds of displaced people, medical sources said.
The strike has caused the collapse of one of the school’s buildings that housed some 700 displaced civilians, eyewitnesses said.
Civil defense teams are still struggling to recover the victims from under the rubble of the destroyed building, they said.
According to local media reports, Tuesday’s attack was the eighth to have targeted schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza since early August.
Israel has systematically targeted civilian facilities, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship, amid its ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Under the rules of war, targeting such civilian facilities can constitute a war crime.
The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has killed over 40,170 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 92,740 since Oct. 7, 2023, according to local health authorities.
More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Earlier this month, an Israeli attack on Al-Tabin school in Gaza City whilst displaced people performed dawn prayers killed at least 100 Palestinian civilians, including women and children.
The Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday that at least 34 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 40,173 killed since 7 October.
Additionally, 92,857 have been wounded since the start of the war.
