War on Gaza: Israel kills orphans and widows in school bombing
Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinian orphans and widows after bombing a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City on Saturday, according to local officials.
The children and women killed in the attack had lost their primary caregiver in earlier Israeli attacks amid the relentless bombing campaign ongoing for nearly a year, the Gaza-based government media office said.
The orphans and widows had arrived at the Zeitoun C school in southern Gaza City to receive cash assistance as part of a charity orphan sponsorship programme.
The media office said the “horrific massacre” was the latest episode of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza’s civilians.
At least 181 schools-turned-shelters have been bombed by the Israeli air force since the war on Gaza began nearly a year ago, it added.
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The Palestinian health ministry said 22 people had been killed in the attack and 30 others wounded.
A three-month-old baby was among those killed, the media office said.
It added two people were missing and at least nine of the wounded children had lost one or more limbs, while others sustained severe burns.
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"The women and their children were sitting in the playground of the school, the kids were playing and suddenly two rockets hit them," Said al-Malahi, a witness, told Reuters.
Another witness, Ahmed Azzam, told the news agency he did not see a single man among the wounded.
"It was all women and children," he said.
'The kids were playing and suddenly two rockets hit them'
- Said al-Malahi, witness
The Israeli military confirmed carrying out the deadly attack, saying it was a “precise strike” on “terrorists”.
It added that the intended target was a Hamas command and control centre, repeating the same claim used for similar strikes on schools in the past without providing evidence.
Hamas has repeatedly denied using schools and other civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out military operations.
Separately, Israeli strikes hit a storage facility used by the health ministry earlier on Saturday in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least three health workers and wounding six others.
Israeli forces have killed at least 41,391 Palestinians since 7 October, including over 16,700 children and 11,000 women, according to Palestinian health and government officials.
More than 10,000 people are missing, presumed dead under rubble from bombing, according to Palestinian health officials.
The figure also includes at least 1,100 health sector professionals, 220 UN aid workers - the highest staff death toll in UN history - and 170 journalists, the highest number of media workers killed in conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began recording data in 1992.
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