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At least 17 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza school shelter
At least 17 Palestinians have been killed and 10 wounded in an Israeli air strike on the Rufaida school in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
The school is a shelter for war-displaced people. The casualty figures are expected to rise as ambulances are still transporting victims from the site of the attack to Al-Aqsa Hospital.
Death toll rises to 22 in Gaza school attack
Ambulances continue to bring victims to the hospital in Deir el-Balah after the deadly Israeli strike on a school shelter.
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 taken shelter.
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.
Victims on the floor at Al-Aqsa Hospital after school strike
Many of the victims are women and children after Israeli forces bombed a school shelter. Dozens of victims are being driven to the hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.
No immediate comment was available from Israel’s military.
On August 1, at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Dalal al-Mughrabi School in northern Gaza City, while on August 3 another 16 died in the bombing of the Hamama School, also in Gaza City.
Al-Aqsa Hospital overwhelmed
We have come across bloody and disturbing scenes of victims transferred from the site of the strike in Deir el-Balah to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where we are right now.
The situation is quite turbulent and chaotic. The school that was hit in the western side of Deir el-Balah was housing thousands of Palestinian families who were forcefully displaced from central parts and across the Gaza Strip.
At least 22 were killed in the strike that was conducted without any sort of warning, and more casualties are still being transferred to the hospital to get medical treatment.
I was inside the emergency department of the hospital and saw disturbing scenes. I saw children completely burned, and many women were also killed or critically injured.
Medical sources said they are facing difficulty in coping with the situation because of the chronic shortage of essential medical supplies. Some of the injured people are now being treated on the floor of the hospital.
Women and children among the victims in Deir el-Balah attack
Israel claims Hamas has been using civilian shelters for Gaza’s war-displaced as “command and control centres”.
Hospital officials say, however, the vast majority of victims in the latest Israeli strike in central Deir el-Balah are women, children, and young men.
Ambulances are streaming into the Al-Aqsa Hospital and some bodies arrived in pieces. Israel’s war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
A wounded Palestinian is carried to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on October 10
