- author, Mallory Mensch
- role, BBC News
-
Israeli forces attacked a school near the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, killing at least 30 Palestinians and wounding more than 100, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced in a Telegram message that a Hamas command and control center had been set up inside the Khadija School.
The IDF added that Hamas had used the facility as a hideout to coordinate and plan attacks and store weapons.
Gaza’s health ministry said the footage showed the victims were civilians, most of them children. The BBC has seen the footage, which shows children among the injured.
Gaza’s civil defense said the school was sheltering displaced people. Hamas said in a Telegram statement that reports that the school was being used for military purposes were “false” and “Displaced persons, the sick and the wounded, many of them women and children” were killed.
Eyewitness Mustafa Rafati told the BBC that the explosion rocked him and he collapsed on impact, before running inside the school in fear and seeing body parts amongst “horrifying scenes”.
“I was shocked,” he said.
Video from the scene showed chaotic scenes as people ran through the rubble-covered compound, a man holding two bloodied children in his arms and a woman cradling another, while a group carried an injured man on a stretcher, and bodies wrapped in blankets lay on the ground.
The IDF said it had taken steps to mitigate the risk to civilians before the attack, “including the use of appropriate munitions, aerial surveillance and gathering additional intelligence.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 53 people had been killed and 189 wounded in IDF bombing attacks on Deir ez-Zor and the southern city of Khan Yunis since Saturday morning.
The attack comes as Israel continues its months-long military operation in Gaza that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, leaving some 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell spoke out against the attack on X in Deir al-Balah, writing that it “comes at the same time as an already highly vulnerable population is being repeatedly asked to relocate with no end in sight.”
“A ceasefire must happen now,” he wrote.
Ceasefire talks led by CIA Director Bill Burns are due to begin on Sunday between representatives of Qatar, Egypt and Israel.
The attack on Deir ez-Zor Barah was reported as the IDF ordered civilians in southern Khan Yunis to evacuate on Saturday morning to a “coordinated humanitarian area” in the coastal area of al-Mawasi.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was launching “enforcement operations” after “significant” rocket fire towards Israel from southern Khan Yunis and reports of “accurate intelligence indicating that Hamas has installed infrastructure” in the humanitarian area. The Israeli army warned civilians that “it has become dangerous to remain in the area.”
The Israel Defense Forces released a map showing a further reduction in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi. The army ordered a withdrawal from parts of the area and reduced the area on Monday ahead of an operation against Palestinian fighters believed to have regrouped there.
After the evacuation order, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 70 people had been killed in Israeli military attacks around Khan Yunis.
Also on Saturday in the West Bank Two men, aged 17 and 24, were killed and 22 others were injured. The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health announced that Israeli military actions resulted in deaths in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus.
The BBC has contacted the IDF about this report.
