Gaza ministry updates school strike death toll to 22, including 13 children
The Health Ministry of the Gaza Strip has updated the death toll on an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City to at least 22.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said most of those killed were women and children.
It said 13 children, including a 3-month-old baby, and six women were among the dead.
Earlier, the ministry said 17 people had died in the Israeli rocket strike on the Al-Zaytoun School C.
The Israeli military said it hit a Hamas command center embedded in the compound that previously served as a school.
It repeated an accusation that Hamas uses civilian facilities for military purposes.Do recent events prelude an all-out war? What would Israel’s new war goals in Lebanon be after 11 months of intermittent exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group that is Lebanon’s most powerful armed force? Is a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah inevitable?
Gaza death toll rises to 41,391 — Health Ministry
Israel’s offensive in Gaza since the October 7 terror attacks has killed more than 41,391 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
There were at least 119 deaths in the past 72 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 95,760 people have been wounded since the latest conflict began.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers broadly reliable.
Around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants are children and the UN says the majority of civilians killed have been women and children. Israel launched its Gaza operation after the Hamas attacks in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people.
Gaza agency says 17 dead in school airstrike, including 8 children
Gaza’s civil defense agency says an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Palestinian territory’s largest city killed 17 people, including eight children.
Israel’s army said it was targeting Hamas militants.
The Hamas-run agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said thousands of displaced people had sought shelter at the school.
“At least 17 martyrs, including eight children, and more than 30 injured, most of them children and women… following an Israeli rocket strike on Al-Zaytoun School C,” Bassal said.
In a statement, the Israeli military said the air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control center in Gaza City.”
It added that the target was “embedded inside” the Al-Falah School, which is adjacent to the Al-Zaytoun School buildings.
