Israel used US-provided bombs in strikes on a UN-run school in central Gaza that was sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians, according to an analysis from CNN.
The school in the Nuseirat camp was targeted early Thursday morning, and at least 40 Palestinians were killed, including 14 children and nine women, according to Palestinian officials and hospital workers.
According to The New Arab, some of the children who were killed arrived at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital “in pieces.”
Israel took credit for the attack and claimed that it targeted Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters but offered no evidence for the assertion. Palestinians sheltering at the school strongly rejected the Israeli claims.
“They’re saying they were targeting fighters. What fighters? We don’t have any weapons, we came here for safety with nothing but our tents and the clothes on our backs,” Ansam Issa, a Palestinian who lost her father and two brothers in the strikes, told Middle East Eye.
Ansam said her family sought shelter at the school just a day earlier after a heavy Israeli bombing targeted the Bureij refugee camp where they live. Israel has significantly escalated military operations in central Gaza this week.
According to CNN’s analysis, Israel used at least two US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bombs to hit the school. Debris of the US-made bombs was spotted in a video recorded by a journalist working for CNN at the scene.
When asked if Israel used US-provided weapons in the massacre, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said that was a question for the Israeli government.
GBU-39 small-diameter bombs, which weigh 250 pounds, were also used in the May 26 Israeli bombing of a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in western Rafah. That strike killed 45 Palestinians, including many women and children.
The US claims it wants Israel to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, but neither massacre will impact US military support. According to CNN, Miller said the attack on the UN school doesn’t cross President Biden’s “red line.”