22 people reportedly killed in Israeli attack on faculty

The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 22 Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded on Sunday in an attack on a U.N.-run school being used as a shelter by the displaced community in central Gaza.

The Israeli military said it targeted several Hamas “terrorists” fleeing the Abu Oraban school in the city’s Nussirat refugee camp.

Observers informed BBC Arabic that there were negative armed counter-attacks and that there were some youth casualties.

It was the fifth attack on or related to schools in eight days.

Strong wind and artillery shelling struck central Gaza on Monday, with five people reportedly killed in an accident in an area of ​​the Maghazi refugee camp, civilians said. The Israeli military noted that its aircraft have attacked dozens of “terrorist targets” around the plain over the past few years.

Meanwhile, Hamas said indirect talks with Israel “continue” on a ceasefire and a proposal to release hostages. More than 90 people were killed, the health ministry said, regarding an air strike in the southern al-Mawasi humanitarian branch on Saturday.,

The Israeli military said it hit a compound in the center where Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s armed wing, was hiding along with Rafa Salama, commander of its Khan Younis Brigade.

The army has said that Salama has been murdered, however, said it was too early to conclude whether Deaf also died. Hamas noted that Deif is in perfect fitness.

A US Department of Defense spokesman said Antony Blinken expressed grave concerns about the latest civilian casualties in a meeting with two key Israeli officials on Monday.

The United States Secretary of State spoke with the National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, who confirmed that Israel is still committed to achieving a goal. Ceasefire proposal under terms set by Joe Biden in May,

Israel announced a military operation in Gaza to crush Hamas following a notable attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

More than 38,660 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures do not distinguish between civilians and warring parties.

According to the United Nations, an estimated 1.9 million civilians – 90% of Gaza’s families – were forced to flee their homes, some of whom have been displaced up to 10 times.

Thousands of people were reportedly sheltering at the Abu Oraiban school, which is administered by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNARWA), when the attack occurred on Sunday afternoon.

A displaced woman told BBC Arabic that she was lighting a fire to cook in the hall when the accident happened in a nearby room.

“As soon as the explosion occurred, the walls of the room fell on us,” he said. “I saw a little boy whose leg was bleeding and a mutilated body which people had covered with a blanket. I also saw a small boy covered in blood, whose entire face was 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 came out of the school, I saw many injured people lying on the ground and their bodies cut into pieces.”

Another resident said his society had been living in the school for six months because the UN facilities were under security.

“There are no armed people and there is no reason to attack schools like this,” he said. “The dead and injured are mainly women and children who lived in this school.”

Video images filmed by a contract cameraman working for BBC Arabic on Sunday showed large numbers of people looking at the debris of a destroyed building in a corner of the school campus. A finely broken staircase can be seen through two huge holes in the wall of the adjacent three-storey faculty building.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas opponents had outfitted the school as “a base and operational infrastructure” from which attacks against its troops were directed and carried out.

“Prior to the attack, a number of steps were taken to minimize the risk of harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and additional intelligence,” it said.

The IDF also accused Hamas of systematically violating global regulation by exploiting civilians and civilian buildings as “human shields” – a charge the gang denies.

A spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense forces told the AFP news agency on Sunday evening that 15 people had been killed and most of them were women and children.

On Monday, the health ministry said the death toll had risen to 22, though it gave no further details.

Hamas condemned the Israeli confrontation, calling it an “expansion of the genocide” against displaced Palestinians.

The IDF has said it will take five steps related to universities hosting displaced communities since July 6. It said they targeted Hamas politicians, police officers and opponents, using them as bases.

On Tuesday, clinic officials said at least 29 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a displaced persons camp outside a school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, which belongs to the southern city of Khan Yunis.

A total of 20 people, including a senior Hamas official, were reportedly killed in three previous moves on two separate Unwara-run schools in Nusraita and a church-run school in Gaza City.