The Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, announced a new death toll of 37 deaths following an Israeli attack that hit a UN school for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the airstrike this morning, which it described as a “precise attack on a Hamas base located inside a UNRWA school in the Nousseirat region” (center), which eliminated “several terrorists”.
The previous death toll, indicated by the Hamas press office, was 27.
The Israeli military stated that “Hamas militants” were operating from inside the school.
The attack occurred after the Israeli Armed Forces announced a new ground and air offensive on several refugee camps in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants who, according to Israeli authorities, have regrouped in these camps. .
Israeli troops are once again invading sections of the Gaza Strip that they had previously invaded, underlining Hamas’ resistance despite the nearly eight-month offensive in the enclave.
According to witnesses and hospital staff, the early morning attack hit the al-Sardi school, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
The building housed Palestinian citizens who had fled Israeli offensives and bombings in northern Gaza, local sources cited by the Associated Press said.
Ayman Rashed, a displaced man from Gaza City who was sheltering at the school, said the missiles hit classrooms on the second and third floors where families were sheltering.
The survivor said he helped remove five dead people, including an elderly man and two children.
“It was dark, there was no electricity, and we had difficulty getting the victims out,” Rashed said.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah says it has received at least 33 dead from the attack, including 14 children and nine women, according to hospital records and a reporter’s account. from the Associated Press at the hospital.
Another attack on a house overnight killed six people, according to records.
Both attacks took place in Nuseirat, one of several refugee camps built in Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their places of residence before the establishment of the State of Israel.
