GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defence company reported 21 killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday (Sep 21), the newest assault on a college sheltering displaced Palestinians the place the Israeli navy stated it focused militants.
A spokesman for the civil defence company, Mahmud Bassal, stated greater than half the useless on the Gaza Metropolis faculty have been youngsters. In line with witnesses, a gaggle of orphans had earlier gathered on the constructing to obtain sponsorship from an area assist group.
“Civil defence crews recovered (the our bodies of) 21 folks, together with 13 youngsters and 6 ladies”, one among whom was pregnant, stated Bassal.
The well being ministry within the Hamas-run Gaza Strip gave the identical demise toll for what the Israeli navy stated was “a exact strike on terrorists who have been working inside a Hamas command-and-control centre … embedded inside” an adjoining faculty.
AFPTV footage confirmed the bottom flooring of the school-turned-shelter coated with concrete rubble and mangled chairs and tables, and a gaping gap within the ceiling of what gave the impression to be a classroom.
Hundreds of Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas warfare had sought shelter there, Bassal stated.
There have been “round 30 injured, together with 9 youngsters (needing) limb amputations, on account of an Israeli bombing on Al-Zeitun College C” in Gaza Metropolis, he stated.
Israel’s navy stated its goal was in Al-Falah College, adjoining to the Al-Zeitun College buildings.
An AFP reporter on the scene confirmed that Al-Zeitun College C had been hit.
The navy, with out mentioning the casualties reported by Gaza’s civil defence and well being ministry, stated it had taken steps “to mitigate the danger of harming civilians, together with the usage of exact munitions, aerial surveillance and extra intelligence”.
Displaced Gazan Randa al-Nadim informed AFP she noticed a pregnant girl killed within the strike.
“Right here a lady was martyred, and that is her blood on the steps … we discovered her stomach open and the fetus on the steps,” she stated.
“Did the fetus combat Israel?”
It was the newest in a sequence of Israeli strikes on faculty buildings housing displaced folks in Gaza, the place preventing has raged on for practically a 12 months since Hamas’ Oct 7 assault on southern Israel.