Early on Saturday morning, Louay Nasser decided to perform the dawn prayer in the classroom he and his family are living in at Tabeen school in Gaza City, rather than go across the courtyard to the mosque. That decision may have saved his life.
As soon as he stood up to start praying, there was what he described as a “bright red light” and the sound of a strong explosion. The 30-year-old ran outside to see what had happened and froze in shock at the scene before him.
“There were pieces of men, women and children lying in front of me … heads separated from bodies, hands and legs all over,” Nasser said. “It was very difficult, but the worst was the man who was on fire, running and screaming. We ran over to him and put out the fire. He had burns all over his body to a massive degree.”
At least 80 people were killed in three Israeli missile strikes on the school, where about 6,000 displaced people were sheltering, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The attack is one of the single deadliest during more than 10 months of war between the Palestinian militant group and Israel, following Hamas’ massacre of about 1,200 civilians in southern Israel and its taking of 251 hostages into Gaza.
Manal al-Jabari, 21, lost seven of her extended family members in the attack, and another 10 were injured. The sound of children crying and women screaming mixed with smoke and the smell of blood and burning flesh, she said, describing the aftermath of the airstrikes as like “being in a nightmare”.
“I looked down and realised I was standing on someone’s [severed] foot. I started screaming,” she said. Jabari remembers looking at the far wall of the building, which was still standing. “I could not understand how the wall was spared but not all the flesh and bodies,” she said.
Israel has again faced international outrage for targeting civilian infrastructure in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza. It has said the school was being used as a command centre by Hamas and its smaller ally, Islamic Jihad.
The military claimed in a statement that the Palestinian death toll was inflated, and that at least 20 fighters, including senior commanders, were among the dead. The Palestinian health ministry does not differentiate between civilian and military casualties.
Israeli forces have targeted 21 schools since the beginning of July – including at one point four in four days – for what it said was the same reason. The UN’s human rights office said on Saturday that Israel was carrying out “systematic attacks on schools” that have left hundreds dead.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties, saying its fighters use the civilian population as a cover, which makes buildings such as schools and hospitals valid targets.
Dr Fadel Naeem, the director of al-Ahli hospital, in Gaza City, said Saturday’s attack was one of the most difficult to deal with of the entire war. He operated on a 16-year-old boy whose left hand had been blown off and both his legs crushed. During the operation, Naeem said he realised with horror that another person’s head was among the mess of bones that made up the lower half of the boy’s body.
“It was beyond what the heart can endure … Despite our best efforts, the severe bleeding took his life. There are dozens more with similar injuries, and with each passing moment, we lose another soul,” he said on X.
Arab and European leaders condemned the strikes on the Tabeen school. The US vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, told reporters later on Saturday: “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed.”
But the latest wave of international anger at Israel’s actions rings hollow to many in Gaza.
“It is not enough to watch all these massacres without doing anything,” Nasser said. “This has to stop.”
Even having endured such loss in Saturday’s attack, Jabari said her family will not be leaving Gaza City to seek shelter elsewhere. “We didn’t think about getting out of Gaza. It’s our home town that we grew up in,” she said, adding: “There is nowhere safe anyway.”