Israeli forces have struck a United Nations-run school in southern Gaza, killing at least 20 displaced Palestinians who were taking shelter inside, according to witnesses who spoke with Al Jazeera. That attack brings a growing number of fatalities from multiple incidents across the blockaded enclave, including other strikes on Beit Hanoon, Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp, as Palestinian officials say more than 60 people have been killed over the last 24 hours.
Since the conflict escalated on October 7, 2023, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports that the death toll has reached at least 45,028 Palestinians, with injuries totaling 106,962.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum explained that the night-time attack on the Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz School in Khan Younis happened “with no warning whatsoever.” “Civilians were in deep sleep, women and children, when it happened, really,” Abu Azzoum said. “No warnings were issued by the Israeli military prior to this strike,” he added.
The three-storey school is adjacent to the Nasser Medical Complex and the attack caused widespread damage, especially to the third floor. “Some bodies were shredded due to the magnitude of the attack,” he added, underlining that the school was housing hundreds of Palestinian families in an area teeming with civilian activity.
Social media images showed the pandemonium and desperate search for survivors after the bombing, with the injured and dead being taken to the Nasser Medical Complex. UNRWA facilities in Gaza have come under near-continuous attack since the beginning of the Israeli military assaults.
“Day by day, the Israeli military is concentrating its efforts on targeting these UN-run shelters where civilians are taking refuge because there are not enough safe buildings,” said Abu Azzoum.
In the past 24 hours, other attacks continued in Khan Younis, one of them a bombing in the village of Bani Suheila that killed four people and injured several others. In northern Gaza, the death toll at the Khalil Oweida School in Beit Hanoon rose from 15 to 43 amid ongoing violence.
Ismail al-Thwabta, a Gaza Government Media Office spokesperson, strongly denounced the Israeli army actions, calling for international condemnation against what he described as “the crimes of the occupation.” He said, “We hold Israel and the United States legally responsible for the ongoing massacres.”
Rescue efforts are continuing in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where an Israeli attack on the Abu Hajar family home killed at least five people, including a child. The camp had been hit earlier, when more than 30 people died on Friday.
In another incident, four people lost their lives in the attack against a tent that was housing displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah on Sunday night. In another attack, journalist Ahmed al-Louh from Palestine, and five other Civil Defence workers have been killed in Nuseirat. He worked as a freelance correspondent with Al Jazeera and also for Arabic media outlets, bringing up the total number to 196 since the beginning of the war.
In the Shujayea neighborhood of Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike killed 10 civilians who were all from nearly the same family. Reports also spoke about an airstrike in Rafah city, without details on casualties.
