Israeli strike on Gaza school kills 100 people during dawn prayers

By Lubna Masarwa – Middle East Eye

At least 100 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were killed at dawn on Saturday after Israeli forces targeted a school in Gaza City whilst displaced people performed morning prayers.

Videos obtained by Middle East Eye showed charred bodies and limbs strewn across a concrete floor, as people scrambled to find their loved ones following the attacks.

Another video appeared to show dozens of bodies covered in cloths and laid out in a courtyard.

The victims of the attack were taken to the partially functioning Maamadani hospital, one of the few operating hospitals in north Gaza.

Moatasem Dalloul, an activist and resident of Gaza City, told Middle East Eye that the hospital does not have enough beds for the wounded and many are being kept in the hallways.

In a video he shared with MEE, a young boy suffering from burns and wounds across his body is seen bandaged and lying on a stretcher in a corridor.

“The bodies of the people who were killed are placed everywhere in the yards of the hospital and their loved ones are bidding them farewell,” said Dalloul, who went to the school following the massacre.

“Israel keeps targetting shelters, but people continue to shelter in these places because their homes have been destroyed in repeated Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip.”

Gaza’s civil defence agency described the attacks as a “horrific massacre” and said three Israeli rockets struck the Tabin school, located in Gaza City’s al-Daraj district, whilst Palestinians performed early morning Fajr prayers.

A man at the scene of the massacre, who did not give his name, told MEE: “When we entered the school, we saw body parts all over the prayer hall.”

“The Israeli occupation forces continue to commit massacres against displaced people in shelters because no one in the world is able to stop it,” Dalloul said.

“The ongoing American and western support, financially and militarily, and the silence of the international community encourage Israel to continue committing such crimes against the innocents in the Gaza Strip.”

‘Two thousand-pound missile’

Mohammed al-Mughair, director of the supply department of Gaza’s civil defence authority, said the Tabin School was housing around 2,400 displaced Palestinians.

“The school was targetted by three missiles, including at least one MK-84 missile, which weighs 2,000 pounds,” Mughair said.

The civil defence said the rockets targeted two floors of the school, with the first striking an area inhabited by displaced women, and the second hitting the ground floor area that was used as a prayer hall.

“The occupation army directly bombed the displaced people while they were performing the dawn prayer,” Gaza’s government media office said in a statement.

“Due to the horror of the massacre and the large number of martyrs, medical teams, civil defence, and relief and emergency teams have not been able to recover the bodies of all the martyrs so far,” it added.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it targeted a “command and control centre” that “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders.” It did not provide any evidence to back up the claim.

Haidar Eid, an English language professor who managed to flee to South Africa before the closure of the Rafah crossing, said: “Without that support and complicit,  if not the direct involvement, of the West, Israel would not have been able to carry it its war crimes and and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing, against Palestinians in Gaza.”

According to the Palestinian government, Israel has struck at least 172 designated shelters, mostly schools, housing thousands of displaced families since the start of the war in October 2023.

Last month, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said Israeli forces had bombed nearly 70 percent of its schools in Gaza, killing more than 500 people.

Hamas has repeatedly rejected Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday’s devastating strike came less than a day after Israel’s government confirmed it would send a delegation to a ceasefire summit proposed by the leaders of the United States, Qatar and Egypt for 15 August.

The three countries said the time had come to finalise the framework agreement on the table.

“It is time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families. The time has come to conclude the ceasefire and hostages and detainees release deal,” the three countries said in a joint statement on Thursday.

“No more time should be wasted, and there should be no excuses by any party for further postponement.”

According to Axios, a source familiar with the negotiations described the summit as a “Hail Mary” effort by the Biden administration to prevent a regional war after the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut last week.

Haniyeh, a veteran Hamas official who played a key role in ceasefire negotiations, was killed alongside his long-serving bodyguard, Wasim Abu Shaaban, hours after they attended a swearing-in ceremony for Iran‘s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Three individuals who were in the heavily guarded building at the time told Middle East Eye that he was killed by a projectile fired at his room.

Israel has been bracing for possible retaliation from Iran and Hezbollah in response to the killings, raising fears of all-out war.