At least 54 Palestinians have been killed in two separate Israeli air strikes overnight, including a strike on a school sheltering displaced families in central Gaza, two hospital directors have told the BBC.
Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City had been housing hundreds of displaced people from the town of Beit Lahia, currently under intense Israeli military assault.
A spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence said 20 bodies, including those of children, were recovered and many were severely burned, after fires engulfed two classrooms turned into living quarters.
The Israeli military (IDF) said it had targeted “a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control centre”.
The IDF said the area was being used “by the terrorists to plan… attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops”, and accused Hamas of using “the Gazan population as human shields”.
“Flames were everywhere. I saw charred bodies lying on the ground,” said Rami Rafiq, a resident living across from the school, in a phone call with the BBC. “My son fainted when he saw the horrific scene.”
Video footage shared online showed large fires consuming parts of the school, with graphic images of severely burned victims, including children, and survivors suffering critical injuries.
Local reports said among the dead was Mohammad Al-Kasih, the head of investigations for the Hamas police in northern Gaza, along with his wife and children.
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Separately, a strike on a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza killed 19 people, according to the director of al-Ahli hospital Dr. Fadel el-Naim.
The Israeli military has not yet commented on what was being targeted.
The twin attacks are part of a broader Israeli offensive that has escalated in the northern part of the enclave over the past week.
The IDF said it hit 200 targets across Gaza in 48 hours as it continued its operations against what it called “terrorist organisations”.
On Friday, an Israeli strike on the home of a Palestinian doctor in Gaza killed nine of her 10 children. Dr Alaa al-Najjar’s 11-year-old son was injured, along with her husband, Hamdi al-Najjar, who is in critical condition.
The nine children – Yahya, Rakan, Raslan, Gebran, Eve, Rival, Sayden, Luqman and Sidra – were aged between just a few months old and 12. The Israeli military has said the incident is under review.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross said two of its staff were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis on Saturday.
