CNN
—
At least 90 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on a school in Gaza, according to local officials.
Gaza Civil Defense said the Al-Tabi’in school was housing displaced Palestinians in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City when it was hit overnight into Saturday.
“We recovered at least 90 people who had been killed,” spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told CNN, adding that “many of them are torn apart, many are still unidentified.”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed to CNN that it hit the school, saying its air force “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control center embedded” in the building.
In its statement, the military claimed the “command and control center served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders, from which various attacks were planned and advanced against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”
When asked by CNN, the IDF did not share any evidence to support this claim.
The military also said that before the airstrike, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information.”
Saturday’s strike is the fifth on a school in Gaza by the Israeli military since last Sunday, according to CNN’s previous reporting. The UN Human Rights Office earlier this week said it was “horrified by the unfolding pattern” of strikes on schools in Gaza, according to a statement on August 5th, adding that “such attacks are escalating.”
Israeli military action in Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and injured over 90,000, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. As of early July, nearly 2 million people had been displaced in the enclave – almost its entire population, according to figures from the United Nations.
Israel launched the military offensive on October 7, after militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel. At least 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 others abducted in the Hamas-led assault, according to Israeli authorities.
A doctor working in a nearby hospital earlier said at least 50 people had been killed in Saturday’s strike.
“Since entering the operating room at 5:00 am [local time] today, there were at least 50 bodies and dozens of wounded,” Dr. Fadl Naim from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City told CNN, adding that the emergency room at the hospital is completely full of people who have been wounded, and “most of the wounded, unfortunately, have amputations and burns.”
Basal said many of the dead were yet to be identified.
“There are still large quantities of body parts and torn bodies inside Al-Ahli hospital,” he said. “Families are having a hard time identifying their children.”
Basal also said that many of the injured transferred to hospital are in very serious condition.
Saturday’s attack follows similar lethal strikes by Israel over the past week.
Airstrikes on multiple school buildings sheltering displaced Palestinians last weekend killed at least 47, including many children, and injured dozens more.
Videos obtained by CNN from the area of last Sunday’s strike – which the IDF also claimed targeted Hamas infrastructure – show extensive destruction and dead bodies in a schoolyard. In the videos, medics and rescuers carry injured children to waiting ambulances.
Palestinian officials told CNN that Israel did not give civilians any warning before the airstrikes occurred.
This is a developing story.