DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, while the Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center in a former school.
The ministry said in a statement that 30 others were wounded in the strike on the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City. It added that most of the victims were women and children. It is still unclear which hospital the dead and wounded were taken to.
The Israeli military said earlier Saturday it had struck a “Hamas command and control center, which was buried inside a compound previously used” as a school. It said steps were taken to minimize harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.
Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli army has bombed a number of schools crowded with tens of thousands of Palestinians who were driven from their homes by Israeli attacks and evacuation orders. According to UN figures, the conflict has displaced 90% of Palestinians in Gaza.
The military has consistently accused Hamas of operating from within Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals. Conflicting accounts of the use of schools and hospitals go to the heart of the nearly year-long conflict.
Earlier this month, an Israeli airstrike hit School in Nuseirat refugee campThe attack killed 14 people, according to Palestinian medical officials. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas militants planning attacks from inside the school.
In July, Israeli airstrikes hit a girls’ school in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 30 people who were sheltering inside. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against its forces and store “large quantities of weapons.”
The war began when Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in an October 7 attack on southern Israel. They also kidnapped another 250 people and are still holding about 100 hostages. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, and it does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza also announced on Saturday that five of its employees were killed and five others were injured by Israeli fire that hit the ministry’s warehouses in the southern Misbah area.
Tensions in the region rose on Friday after Israeli air strike In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, dozens of people were killed, including civilians and Ibrahim AqilHe was in charge of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. Ahmad Wehbe, another senior commander in the group’s military wing, was also killed.
The strike came hours after Hezbollah Hamas launched one of the heaviest barrages on northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the rockets.
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