21 September – (Index Treasure) Palestinians said an Israeli strike killed at least 22 in a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City on Saturday. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command centre.
The Gaza health ministry said most of those killed were women and children. The Hamas-run government media office said 13 children and six women were among the dead.
The military said it hit a Hamas command center in a compound that was once a school. It repeated an accusation that the group uses civilian sites for military purposes. Hamas denies that.
Reuters footage from the site showed blasted walls and burnt furniture. There were holes in the ceiling of one room. People tried to salvage their belongings.
“The women and their children were in the school playground. The kids were playing when two rockets hit them,” said witness Said Al-Malahi.
Some of the dead were wrapped in blankets. Donkey carts carried them away, while ambulances took other bodies.
“I couldn’t take it. I saw no injured men, only women and children. Let the Arab countries rejoice. Let them clap for (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the U.S.,” said another eyewitness, Ahmed Azzam. He was bitter that regional neighbors were not tougher on Israel.
‘Medics killed’
In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, the Gaza health ministry said four health workers were killed by an Israeli strike that hit ministry warehouses. Ambulance crews could not reach the dead or treat the wounded, it added.
In a statement, the Israeli military said forces, operating in Rafah since May, have killed dozens of militants in recent weeks and dismantled military infrastructure and tunnel shafts.
Israel’s demand to keep control of the southern border line between Rafah and Egypt has been a major sticking point in international efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.
Hamas says it is focused on an agreement to end the war and get Israeli forces out of Gaza, while Israel says the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated. Another sticking point has been the specifics of an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
This war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the enclave has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and displaced nearly the entire 2.3 million-strong population.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Dawoud Abu Alkas in Gaza, Adam Makary in Cairo and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Andrew Cawthorne)
