At least 29 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a camp for displaced people outside a school in southern Gaza, hospital officials say.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said the strike had hit next to the gate of al-Awda school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of the city of Khan Younis.
The Israeli military said it had used “precise munition” to target a “terrorist from Hamas’ military wing” who, it said, had taken part in the 7 October attack on Israel.
It said it was “looking into the reports that civilians were harmed” “adjacent” to al-Awda school, which houses displaced people from the eastern villages of Khan Younis.
The incident comes a week after the Israeli military ordered civilians to evacuate Abasan al-Kabira and other areas of eastern Khan Younis, prompting tens of thousands to flee.
The BBC has spoken to witnesses who said the area was teeming with displaced people at the time, and who recounted the bloody aftermath in graphic detail.
The attack resulted in widespread destruction and the deaths of women and children.
Body parts were scattered across the site and many people staying in tents outside the school were also injured.
Ayman Al-Dahma, 21, told the BBC there had been as many as 3,000 people packed into the area at the time, which he said housed a market and residential buildings.
Describing the number of casualties as “unimaginable”, he said he had seen people whose limbs had been severed by the blast.
He continued: “They said it was a safe place – that there were water and food, there were schools and everything… Suddenly a rocket comes down on you and all the people around you.”
Mohamed Awadeh Anzeh told the BBC the area had been busy with people and market traders “going about their normal lives” when the strike hit.
He continued: “Suddenly, while we were sitting, there was a sound. It went dark… I was feeding my little child.
“I don’t know what happened. Suddenly, I took him and started running… and while I was running, I saw blood coming down from my leg.”
He described a “terrifying” scene and said he had witnessed body parts strewn across the street.
Iqram Sallout said there had been no prior warning a strike could be imminent in the area, which he told the BBC had been filled with people forced from their homes by the conflict.
“There are many displaced people – you couldn’t even walk in the streets, there were many tents and people, including young people”.
He added: “The injuries we saw were severe, even among young children.”
One video showed more than a dozen dead and seriously wounded people, including several children, on the floor of a local hospital.
One source at the Nasser hospital, where the injured from Abasan al-Kabira were taken, said they expected the number of dead to increase.
This is the fourth attack on or near to schools sheltering displaced people in the past four days.
The Israeli military said it had carried out the first three strikes because Hamas politicians, police officers and fighters were using them as bases:
- On Saturday, 16 people were killed in a strike on a UN-run school in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, which was home to about 2,000 displaced people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry
- On Sunday a strike on a church-run school in Gaza City killed a senior Hamas government official and three other people, local sources said
- On Monday night, several people were reportedly wounded in a strike on another UN-run school in Nuseirat.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy the Hamas group in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 38,240 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.