Israeli strike on Gaza City school kills 27, health ministry says

The Hamas-run health ministry reports that at least 27 Palestinians lost their lives in an Israeli airstrike targeting a school in northern Gaza that was acting as a refuge for displaced families. Numerous others were injured when the Dar al-Arqam school in the northeastern Tuffah area of Gaza City was struck, according to a local hospital report.

The Israeli military stated it targeted “notable terrorists located in a Hamas command and control centre” within the city, failing to reference a school.

The health ministry previously announced that an additional 97 individuals were killed in Israeli strikes within the last 24 hours, as Israel stated its ground offensive was broadening to capture significant areas of Palestinian land. Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-operated Civil Defence agency, reported that among the casualties were women and children following the attack on Dar al-Arqam school.

He also mentioned that a woman who was very pregnant with twins was unaccounted for, along with her husband, sister, and three children. Footage from the nearby al-Ahli hospital depicted children being hurried there in vehicles and trucks with critical injuries.

An announcement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) indicated that the location in Gaza City they targeted had been utilized by Hamas militants to strategize assaults on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

It noted that many measures have been implemented to reduce civilian suffering. During the night, at least 12 individuals lost their lives when multiple houses in the Shejaiya area of Gaza City were hit, according to the Civil Defence. It shared a video that seemed to depict the bodies of two young children being retrieved by rescuers from the debris of a fallen structure.