At least 28 people were killed when Israel attacked a school shelter in Gaza Gaza news

The attack in Deir el-Balah is the latest in a series of strikes on schools sheltering displaced families in Gaza.

An Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in the central Gaza Strip has killed at least 28 people and wounded scores of others, according to Palestinian authorities.

“Palestinian Red Crescent groups responded to 28 deaths and 54 injuries after Israeli forces targeted Rafida School,” the Palestine Red Crescent said on Thursday. The Ministry of Health in Gaza also confirmed the number of dead.

“The State of Israel has committed a new massacre by directing people who were exiled to the area [Rafida] at a school in the Deir el-Balah area of ​​the central region this afternoon, where 28 martyrs and more than 54 wounded have arrived at hospitals,” the department said.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said children and women were “torn to pieces by the intensity of the strike”.

“I saw with my own eyes many bodies that were torn to pieces, which made it difficult to identify them unless the family members were able to find out who they were from other marks on their clothes in the hospital morgue,” said Abu Azzoum.

He said the Israeli military did not issue a warning before striking the building.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike was aimed at Hamas militants working in a so-called command-and-control center “embedded inside a computer that previously served as a group.” [Rafida] School”.

It did not provide evidence, but said the building was used “to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against.” [Israeli army] the military and the State of Israel”.

Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing Palestinian refugees in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than a year.

This attack killed a lot of children and women. Many schools run by the UN organization for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) were also damaged or destroyed.

On September 26, at least 15 people were killed in another strike that turned into a school shelter in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, according to the Gaza Defense Ministry.

Israeli forces have launched a renewed offensive in Jabalia, where thousands of families are trapped in their homes in a devastated area that has seen ground and airstrikes.

According to Abu Azzoum, the Israeli army “searches houses” in the camp and arrests males aged 14 and over.

“They are taking them to undisclosed locations on the other side of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

At least 42,065 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began in October, 2023.