Israeli strike kills 16 people at school in Gazan refugee camp, Palestinian officials say

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Authorities in Gaza say 16 people were killed in the strike, with more than 50 who were injured taken to hospital.
Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal has said “absolutely no place in the Gaza Strip is safe”.
Israel said it had targeted militants in the strike and attempted to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.

Authorities in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a United Nations-run school where thousands of displaced were sheltering has killed 16 people.

Israel’s military said its aircraft had targeted militants operating around the Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza.

The health ministry in Gaza, which condemned the strike as an “odious massacre”, said 50 injured were taken to hospital from the school.

Some 7,000 people were sheltering in the school at the time of the attack, the Hamas government press office said.

A large group of people inspecting the damage from a destroyed building.

Gaza officials said around 7,000 people had been sheltering at the school. Source: Getty / Eyad Baba/AFP

Dozens of people scrambled through the rubble after the strike to find survivors.

The press office said the school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

The Israeli military said in a statement it “struck several terrorists operating in structures located in the area of UNRWA’s Al-Jawni school”, insisting that “steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.

Israel has agreed to meetings with mediators on a ceasefire initiative but has continued its offensive in the territory since a Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

UNRWA said two of its workers were killed in a strike at Al-Bureij, also in central Gaza, early Saturday.

The agency has a major food warehouse in the district.

Paramedics said 10 people, including three journalists, died in another strike on a house in Nuseirat on Saturday.

“Absolutely no place in the Gaza Strip is safe,” said civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal.

A person inspecting items in a destroyed building.

Nuseirat is one of the eight refugee camps in Gaza. Source: Getty / NurPhoto

The war between Hamas and Israel is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict.

Israel has bombarded Gaza since Hamas’ 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government.

Gaza’s health ministry estimates more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.

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