At least 22 Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded on Sunday in a strike on a UN-run school in central Gaza, used as a shelter by displaced people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The Israeli military stated that it targeted several Hamas “terrorists” operating from Abu Oraiban School in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
However, witnesses told BBC Arabic that no armed fighters were present and that children were among the casualties.
This was the fifth attack on or near schools in eight days.
Residents reported fresh air and artillery strikes in central Gaza on Monday, with five people killed when a house in the Maghazi refugee camp was hit.
Israeli military claimed its aircraft had struck dozens of “terror targets” across the territory in the past day.
Meanwhile, Hamas stated that indirect negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release with Israel were “ongoing” following an air strike in the southern al-Mawasi humanitarian area on Saturday, which the health ministry reported killed over 90 people.
The Israeli military said it targeted a compound where Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s armed wing, was hiding with Rafa Salama, the commander of its Khan Younis Brigade.
The military announced Salama’s death but said it was too early to confirm if Deif was also killed. Hamas claimed Deif is in good health.
Israel initiated a military campaign in Gaza to dismantle Hamas following an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages taken.
Since then, over 38,660 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The UN estimates that around 1.9 million people—90% of Gaza’s population—have been forced to flee their homes, with some displaced up to 10 times.
Thousands were reportedly sheltering at Abu Oraiban School, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), when it was struck on Sunday afternoon.
A displaced woman told BBC Arabic she was lighting a fire to cook in a corridor when a nearby room was hit.
“As soon as the explosion occurred the walls of the room collapsed on us,” she said. “I saw a little boy whose leg was bleeding and a dismembered corpse which people covered with blankets. I also saw a little boy lying in a pool of blood, with his whole face bleeding.”
She added: “I quickly ran out of the school. I found my aunt at the school gate, hugging her burnt young son. When I left the school, I saw many injured people lying on the ground and bodies torn to pieces.”
Another resident said his family had been living at the school for six months because UN facilities were supposed to be safe.
“There are no armed men and no reason to strike schools this way,” he added. “The dead and injured people are mainly women and children staying at this school.”
Video footage filmed by a freelance cameraman working for BBC Arabic later on Sunday showed hundreds of people walking past the rubble of a destroyed structure in one corner of the school compound. A heavily damaged staircase could also be seen through two large holes in a wall of the adjoining three-storey school building.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hamas fighters had used the school as “a hideout and operational infrastructure” from which attacks against its troops were directed and carried out.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence,” it added.
The IDF has accused Hamas of systematically violating international law by using civilians and civilian structures as “human shields,” an allegation that Hamas has denied.
A spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence force told AFP news agency on Sunday evening that 15 people were killed, most of whom were women and children. On Monday, the health ministry reported that the death toll had risen to 22, without providing further details.
Hamas condemned the Israeli strike, calling it an “extension of the genocide” against displaced Palestinians.
The IDF has acknowledged conducting five strikes on or near schools sheltering displaced people since July 6. They claimed these strikes targeted Hamas politicians, police officers, and fighters who were using the schools as bases.
Last Tuesday, hospital officials reported that at least 29 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people outside a school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, near the southern city of Khan Younis.
In three earlier strikes, 20 people, including a senior Hamas government official, were reportedly killed at two other Unrwa-run schools in Nuseirat and a church-run school in Gaza City.