BBCWarning: This story contains details which some people may find upsetting
An Israeli air strike that killed multiple children at a former school twelve days ago had been targeting one local Hamas figure, the BBC has been told.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a Hamas “command and control centre” had been embedded inside the compound in Gaza City, which it targeted in a “precise strike” on 21 September.
It killed 22 people, including 13 children and six women, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The school, closed during the war, had been housing displaced people, the health ministry said.
One young girl, Amal, told the BBC she had been inside the school building when it was hit and saw bodies “torn apart”.
“What have we done as children? We wake up and go to sleep terrified,” she said.
“At least protect the schools; we don’t have schools or homes – where do we go?”
Sources have told the BBC that one of those killed was a local Hamas figure, meaning many civilians died due to a single main target.
Huda Alhadad lost two children – son Muhammad, 13, and daughter Hanan, 12.
“I was coming from the hallway when the missile fell. I came and found my husband screaming, saying, ‘My children, my children, my children,'” she told the BBC.
“I asked him, ‘Where are they?’ I searched for them and found them under the rubble.”
In the twelve days after the air strike, at least eight more fatal strikes took place in Gaza on school buildings housing displaced families – the latest in a series of attacks on such buildings, which provide little safety.
Unicef has said more than 50% of schools used as shelters in Gaza had been directly hit during the current war, with “devastating consequences for children and families”.
In each of the latest strikes, the IDF released public statements saying the former schools had contained Hamas terrorists or “command and control” centres.
In their public statement about the 21 September strike, the IDF incorrectly named the former school they hit – Al-Zeitoun C – instead identifying another one nearby, Al-Falah.
We confirmed that Al-Zeitoun C was the one that had been hit by speaking to local people, as well as comparing videos of the attack aftermath with satellite imagery.
The Hamas-run Gazan authorities also named it as Al-Zeitoun C.
The relevant area is in the Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood and includes four distinct schools: Al-Falah, and Al-Zeitoun A, B, and C.
When asked about incorrectly naming the school, the IDF refused to comment.
It would also not comment on who was targeted.
The Hamas-run government media office said the Israeli military had committed a “horrific massacre” by bombing Al-Zeitoun C school, which shelters displaced people. It said that, in addition to those killed, the attack also caused severe injuries, including nine children who needed limbs amputating.
Dr Amjad Eliwa, an emergency physician who treated those injured in the strike, described over 30 injuries reaching his hospital, saying they were “mostly among children and women, with cases of amputations and very severe injuries”.
He described one of those who died as a woman who was six months pregnant.
This was corroborated by images of a foetus at the site of the strike, and residents said the dead woman was Barah Deraawi, who died along with two young daughters, Israa and Iman.
Additional reporting by Paul Brown