Israeli strike on Gazan school kills 11, leaves refugees stranded
Children react following an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Falluja near the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Palestine, Sept. 26, 2024. (AFP Photo)


An Israeli airstrike struck a school in northern Gaza on Thursday, where thousands of displaced Palestinians had sought refuge, resulting in at least 11 deaths and injuring 22 others, including women and children.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp school, claiming that it targeted Hamas members.

The Israeli claim has not been independently verified.

Footage from al-Falouja School depicted rescue workers evacuating victims from the scene, surrounded by debris and crowds of onlookers.

One distressing video showed men placing a severed torso in a plastic sheet and transporting body parts in a cooler.

Gaza’s Health Ministry did not immediately specify how many of the casualties were women and children.

Israeli forces have repeatedly struck schools, claiming Hamas members use them as "command centers" to plan attacks.

The Israeli military claims it employs precision weapons to avoid civilian casualties.

The strikes have resulted in heavy death tolls.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are living in overcrowded schools across Gaza after fleeing their homes amid Israeli bombardment and offensives.

More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced in the nearly yearlong conflict, according to the United Nations.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, authorities buried the bodies of 88 Palestinians returned to the Gaza Strip by Israel a day earlier in a mass grave.

A bulldozer dug a trench in one of the city’s cemeteries, and the bodies were laid inside in blue plastic bags before the bulldozer covered them with dirt.

Gaza’s Health Ministry condemned the "inhumane and immoral" treatment of the bodies, saying they were sent back piled in a truck with no identifying information.

Throughout Israel’s offensives in Gaza, troops have exhumed multiple graveyards and impromptu mass graves created at hospitals holding the bodies of Palestinians killed during raids on the facilities.

The military has taken an unknown number of bodies into Israel, stating it is searching for potential bodies of Israeli hostages.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded over 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry with more than half the dead reported to be women and children, including about 1,300 children under the age of 2.

Israel launched its genocidal campaign in Gaza, vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7 incursion, during which the group killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage.