50 Killed As Israel Bombs UN School In Gaza Strip, Says Hamas

The UN school was being used as a shelter for displaced people (Representational)

Gaza Strip:

An official of the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said “at least 50 people” were killed Saturday when Israeli forces struck a UN school being used as a shelter for displaced people.

The strike on the UN-run Al-Fakhura school in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip happened “at dawn”, the official told AFP.

Social media videos — which AFP was not able to verify — showed bodies covered in blood and dust on the floor of a building, where mattresses had been wedged under school tables.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was also unable to offer an immediate reaction.

Jabalia is the biggest refugee camp in Gaza, where some 1.6 million have been displaced by more than six weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

At the start of November, the Hamas government said more than 200 people had been killed and hundreds more wounded in Israeli bombardments on the Jabalia camp over three consecutive days.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the October 7 attacks which Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians in southern Israel, and saw about 240 people taken hostage.

The army’s relentless air and ground campaign has since killed 12,000 people, including 5,000 children, according to the Hamas government which has ruled Gaza since 2007.

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