Deadly attack on a shelter in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An Israeli airstrike hit a school converted into a shelter in Gaza City early yesterday, killing at least 80 people, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest incidents in the 10-month war between Israel and the Hamas militant group.

The Israeli military acknowledged the attack and said it hit a Hamas command center inside the school. The group denied the claim.

The operation against the Al-Tabeen school in the city centre also left 47 people wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency services said.

The school, like most schools in the Gaza Strip, serves as a shelter for those forced to leave their homes because of the fighting.

Video from the scene showed shattered walls on the ground floor of a large building. Pieces of concrete and twisted metal lay on the blood-soaked ground, along with clothing, toppled furniture and other debris. A blackened car with its windows blown out was also covered in rubble.

Fadel Naeem, director of the city’s al-Ahli hospital, said the facility received 70 bodies of those killed in the raid and limbs of at least 10 others.

At a glance

Without notice

The attack came without warning before dawn as people were praying in a mosque inside the school, said Abu Anas, a witness who took part in the rescue efforts.

In pieces

“The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile and the second. We took them out in pieces,” he added.

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