Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza kills 27
- Last updated: October 10, 2024 | 17:02
An Israeli strike on a school sheltering the displaced in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people on Thursday, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strike in the central Gaza city of Deir Al Balah killed 27 people, including a child and seven women, according to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. It said several other people were wounded.
The strike on Rafida School in central Gaza, which according to the Palestinian Red Crescent killed 28 people and wounded 54 others, follows the widening of Israeli operations in the north of the territory.
"Palestine Red Crescent teams responded to 28 fatalities and 54 injuries following the Israeli occupation army's targeting of Rafida School," the organisation said, referring to a school in Deir Al Balah.
An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces. "We appeal to the world. We are dying!” one man screamed.
Witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamas-run police who provide security. They said there were no police in the room at the time.
In a separate development, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalised. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
UNIFIL said in a statement that its headquarters and nearby positions "have been repeatedly hit.” It said the army also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker's entrance.
Agencies