80 dead after Israeli missile hits a school-turned-shelter in Gaza

In what is being called one of the deadliest attacks yet, Israel military says it aimed at a Hamas command centre in the school

An Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City early Saturday, killing at least 80 people. Palestinian health authorities said this is one of the deadliest strikes in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli military acknowledged the strike, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school but Hamas denied that.

Palestinians mourn over the dead in the yard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. PIC/PTI

The facility, like almost all of Gaza’s schools, has been used as a shelter for people who have been forced to flee their homes by the war. Fadel Naeem, director of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, told The Associated Press that the facility received 70 bodies of those killed in the strike and the body parts of at least 10 others. The strike hit without warning in the early morning before sunrise as people were praying at a mosque inside the school, according to Abu Anas, a witness who worked to rescue people.

“There were people praying, there were people washing and there were people upstairs sleeping, including children, women and old people,” he said. “The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile, and the second. We recovered them as body parts.” Three missiles ripped through the school and the mosque inside, where about 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter from the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense first responders.

6,000
Displaced people are taking shelter inside the school

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