Seven dead in Israeli attack on Gaza school housing more displaced people | Gaza News

According to a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, Israeli forces attacked a school in the north of the Gaza Strip that had been converted into a shelter for refugees. At least seven people were killed in this latest attack on schools.

The Kafr Qasim school in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, which provided shelter to hundreds of displaced people, was the target of an Israeli air strike, Mahmud Bassal said on Sunday.

Among the injured were “serious cases,” he added.

The attack on the school came a day after another Israeli airstrike on a school in northern Gaza City housing war refugees killed 22 people, including 13 children and six women.

The Israeli army claimed that it had attacked the Hamas fighters present in the complex, but provided no evidence.

The military said it had taken measures to reduce the risk of harm to “uninvolved persons,” including the use of precision weapons and intelligence. The statement did not provide details of the fatalities.

Israel has repeatedly attacked schools and other civilian infrastructure on the grounds that they were used by Hamas militants, but has rarely provided evidence to support its claims.

Israel has long been accused of failing to take sufficient measures to reduce the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, using 900-kilogram bombs in densely populated areas, attacking entire homes and attacking tents in so-called “humanitarian safe zones” intended to provide shelter for civilians fleeing fighting.

Activists say Israel has blatantly violated international laws of war and made little distinction between civilians and armed fighters. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes. The court in The Hague has also requested arrest warrants for two Hamas leaders.

Seven other Palestinians were killed in separate airstrikes in central and southern parts of Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said, according to the Wafa news agency. Two other people were killed in Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis, after being hit by artillery shells. Another Palestinian was killed when an Israeli quadcopter opened fire on civilians west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

“We want the war to end”

Meanwhile, the living conditions of the survivors are deteriorating. Photos and images from the south of the enclave show dilapidated tents and makeshift shelters that were flooded by rainwater overnight.

“Ten minutes of rain was enough to sink the tents. What if it rained all day? The tents are already worn out and cannot withstand the winter,” Aya, who was displaced with her family from the central city of Deir el-Balah, told Reuters. “We don't want new tents. We want the war to end. We don't want temporary solutions in hell,” the 30-year-old added.

To add to the misery, Gaza's Health Ministry warned that generators supplying electricity to all health facilities in the enclave could stop working within ten days due to a shortage of oil, filters and spare parts.

This poses a great danger to the lives of patients in the facilities, especially in sensitive departments such as operating rooms, intensive care units and children's rooms, according to a statement published on Telegram.

The ministry appealed to “all concerned international and humanitarian institutions to intervene quickly” to keep the generators running.

More shelter and supplies are needed to help people survive the coming winter, said Juliette Touma, communications director for the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.

“When it rains and temperatures drop, people are likely to get sick, especially children, who are most vulnerable to colds and flu,” Touma said.

Most of the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced since Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7. The Israeli military offensive came after Hamas and Palestinian factions carried out an attack inside Israel that left more than 1,100 civilians dead and about 250 captured.

Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in the past eleven months of continuous bombardment and reduced large parts of the besieged enclave to rubble.