At least seven people were killed and several others injured today in a new Israeli attack on a school hosting displaced people from Gaza in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza.
At least seven people were killed and several others wounded today in a new Israeli attack on a school hosting displaced people from Gaza in the Shati refugee camp, north of Gaza City, medical sources told Efe.
The Kafr Qasim school, however, is not part of the UN refugee agency’s network of centres for Palestinians in the Middle East (UNRWA). However, according to Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal, the centre is home to hundreds of displaced Palestinians.
The number of victims could rise in the coming hours, as search operations continue to find more bodies or possible survivors.
The Israeli military acknowledged the attack, which it said targeted a group of Hamas militants operating in the compound.
As always happens when attacking civilian infrastructure in Gaza, Israeli forces said they had taken precautions to “minimise” damage to civilians and again accused the Islamic group of “abusing” such buildings by using them as shelters.
The attack comes just 24 hours after Israeli forces shelled a school compound in the Gaza capital, killing 22 people, including 13 children and six women.
The bombing also left around 30 people injured and several missing in the rubble, after two missiles hit a three-storey school building in the Zeitun neighbourhood.
Israel regularly bombs schools where displaced people take refuge, claiming that they serve as hiding places for Hamas militants.
Since October, more than 500 schools have been attacked in the devastated Palestinian enclave.
The vast majority of the enclave’s population, nearly two million people, live in displaced tents or overcrowded schools, with little access to running water, electricity or hygiene products.
Since the start of the war, 41,391 people have been killed and 95,760 injured in Gaza, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas-controlled enclave, which warned today that the generators of all medical centres in the Gaza Strip could stop within 10 days due to a lack of fuel and spare parts to repair them.
“We call on all interested international and humanitarian institutions to intervene quickly to bring fuel, filters and spare parts for the generators,” the Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement.
Source: Observadora
