Key Points
- The strike hit Al-Taba’een school, located adjacent to a mosque that serves as a shelter for Gaza residents.
- The Israeli army said it used precise munitions, aerial surveillance and intelligence information to mitigate civilian risk.
- The attack followed Israel’s minister Bezalel Smotrich’s controversial defence of blockading aid into Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school compound housing displaced families killed around 100 people, Gaza government officials said on Saturday, an attack the Israeli military said targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants operating there.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered on the ground and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets on the floor. Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood and burnt mattresses and a child’s doll among the debris.
The strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing dawn prayers, leading to many casualties, the Gaza media office said in a statement.
“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” said Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal in a televised news conference.
Around 6,000 people had been sheltering at the compound, he said. The Gaza health ministry has so far not provided casualty details.
In a statement in Hebrew, the Israeli military said the death toll was inflated. It said around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating at the site.
Israel has long argued that Palestinian militant groups embed themselves among Gaza’s civilians, operating from within schools, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones — which Hamas and its allies deny.
“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” .
“According to an initial review, the numbers published by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza, do not align with the information held by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike,” Shoshani said.
“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,” the Israeli military said in an earlier statement.
The Israeli strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing dawn prayers, leading to many casualties, the Gaza media office said in a statement. Source: AAP / AP
Hamas said the strike was a horrific crime and a serious escalation. Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’ political office, said in a statement that the dead did not include a “single combatant.”
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Gaza’s schools, most of which have stopped functioning since the start of the war 10 months ago.
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Israel’s ally Washington to put an end to the “blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly”.
Egypt’s foreign ministry also condemned the strike, which came as , and said that the killing of Gaza civilians showed Israel had no intention to end the war.
Penny Wong condemns Israeli minister’s starvation comments
The attack comes after Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined other world leaders in condemning a senior member of Israel’s government for arguing it was “justified and moral” to starve Palestinians until Israeli hostages were released.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday triggered international outrage when he claimed there was justification for blocking aid supplies to Gaza until all hostages captured by Hamas in the October 7 attacks were freed.
“It’s not possible in today’s global reality to manage a war — no one will allow us to starve two million people, even though that might be just and moral until they return the hostages,” he said in a speech.
“The deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime,” Wong said on X, formerly Twitter.
“There is no justification for it, ever.”
Senator Wong reiterated the urgent need for a ceasefire to protect civilians, see hostages released and allow aid to arrive.
The UK’s foreign secretary and Germany’s ambassador to Israel both criticised Smotrich’s comments
United Nations human rights commissioner Volker Turk demanded an investigation into Smotrich, saying his comments incited hatred against innocent civilians.
The far-right minister also labelled a proposed deal for a ceasefire a “dangerous trap” and said that any deal to end the war in the Gaza Strip before Hamas had been destroyed would allow Hamas to regroup and murder Jewish people.
Those statements were “outrageous and absurd” and would jeopardise Israel’s security, according to US White House National Security spokesman John Kirby.
US demands investigation following leaked prisoner video
The US has also criticised a video recently aired by Israel’s Channel 12 that appeared to show soldiers taking a detainee out of sight of surveillance cameras to carry out abuses, as well as broader allegations of abuses against prisoners.
Israel should fully investigate allegations of sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees by its soldiers, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday.
“We have seen the video, and reports of sexual abuse of detainees are horrific. They ought to be investigated fully by the government of Israel, by the IDF,” Miller said, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.
“There ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee, period.”
The White House also called the reports of rape, torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners “deeply concerning”.
“It is essential that the rule of law and due process prevail,” said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre.
A spokesperson for Israel’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
But the Israeli military, which runs some detention facilities where Palestinian prisoners have been held, said in response to earlier allegations that it operated according to the rule of law and that any specific claims of abuse were investigated.
The video appearing to show an incident of abuse emerged amid an investigation by Israeli authorities into alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners by soldiers.
The investigation sparked protests by right-wing Israelis, who broke into two military facilities after military police detained nine soldiers over allegations of severe abuse of a detainee captured in Gaza by army reservists at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem said in a report on Monday that Israel has conducted a systematic policy of prisoner abuse and torture since the start of the Gaza war in October, subjecting Palestinian detainees to acts ranging from arbitrary violence to sexual abuse.
About 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 hostages taken after Hamas militants stormed a music festival on October 7. In response, Israel’s military has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry.
The significant escalation occurred against the backdrop of a long-standing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
