Israeli attack on Gaza school sheltering displaced Palestinians kills 22

At least 22 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack that hit a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

The Palestinian Civil Defence agency in Gaza confirmed that Israel targeted the Zeitoun School in the eastern part of Gaza City on Saturday.

Those killed include 13 children, six women, and a three-month-old baby, the Government Media Office said in a statement, adding that Israel had committed a “horrific massacre”.

At least 30 people were wounded, the ministry said, including several who suffered severe burns. Two people remain missing.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal noted that thousands of displaced people had sought shelter at the school.

Israel’s military said in a statement the air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control centre in Gaza City”.

It said the target was “embedded inside” the al-Falah School, which is adjacent to the Zeitoun School buildings.

Israeli forces frequently accuse the group of using civilian facilities for military purposes. Hamas denies this.

This is the latest in a series of Israeli raids on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders have been sheltering.

A strike on the United Nations-run al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported deaths.

According to the media office, Israel has bombed 181 displacement and shelter centres to date.

William Deere, director of UNRWA’s Washington Office, told Al Jazeera earlier this month that Israeli forces have targeted a total of 190 UN-run facilities in the course of the war, “many of them more than once”. That’s despite the agency sharing their GPS coordinates with the Israeli military.

On August 1, at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Dalal al-Mughrabi school in Gaza City, while on August 3, another 16 were killed in the bombing of the Hamama school, also in Gaza City.

On August 4, at least 30 people were killed in Israeli air raids on the Nassr and Hassan Salama schools, west of Gaza City, while on August 8, at least 17 were killed in attacks on Abdul Fattah Hamouda and az-Zahra schools, which are also located in Gaza City.

And on August 10, more than 100 people were killed and 150 others wounded after Israeli forces bombed al-Tabin school, east of Gaza City.

At least 41,391 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since last October, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, including 119 deaths in the past 72 hours.

It said on Saturday that 95,760 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 last year.