'Heads blown up': Israeli strike on central Gaza school kills 28
An Israeli strike on a school in central Gaza left “heads blown up” and “innocent children scattered across the floor”, eyewitnesses have told Middle East Eye.
The attack on Thursday afternoon targeted Rafidah school in Deir al-Balah, which was sheltering over 1,000 displaced people. It killed 28 Palestinians and wounded over 50 others.
“We were sitting in peace, in front of the school,” Abu Hamza, who was taking refuge at the site, told MEE.
Suddenly, he said, he and others were left in a state of shock by the sound of a huge explosion which “broke through three floors of the building”.
“The people took refuge here because it was meant to be safe. But there are no safe places. The Israelis are liars,” he said.
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Women could be heard screaming as they surveyed the wreckage and the blood-strewn floors of the school.
Local men hurriedly stretchered wounded people into emergency service vehicles to be taken to the nearby al-Aqsa Hospital. Dozens of corpses were wrapped in large white body bags and carried away to be buried.
Nahed al-Zaneen, 34, teaches displaced children in tents near Rafidah school. He was just metres away when the Israeli bomb struck.
“I get out and all I see is shreds of bodies all over the floor. Heads blown up, innocent children scattered across the floor,” he told MEE.
“What did these children do wrong? Were these children holding missiles? Did they have guns?”
Halima Zayed, who survived the attack, said she was sitting in a classroom with her children and husband.
“We’ve been displaced, we’ve lost everything, we don’t have anything. What makes me most sad is that I can’t get anything for my children,” she told MEE, breaking down into tears.
Several women and children were among the dead and the wounded, the eyewitnesses reported.
Hamza said he lost several of his friends in the attack.
“We were together, seeking refuge in this school for a whole year,” he said. “I saw them more than my own family, so we became just like family. We became even more than family.”
'How long can we live like this?'
The strike is the latest in a string of Israeli attacks on schools housing thousands of displaced people in Gaza.
On 11 September, an Israeli strike on al-Jawni school, run by the United Nations, killed 18 people, including six members of Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Another Israeli strike on 1 August killed 15 people sheltering in the Dalal al-Mughrabi school in northern Gaza City. Two days later, a similar raid killed 16 people in the Hamama school.
“How long are we meant to live like this? We say we are steadfast, yes we’re steadfast, but we can’t take this anymore,” said Zaneen.
“How are you meant to go on living when you’ve seen your friend, or your brother, or your mother, or sister, or your child in shreds scattered across the floor?”
Thursday’s school attack came as fierce battles took place between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in northern Gaza.
Hamas’ armed wing released a video which purported to show a tight ambush near the Saftawi junction in Jabalia in which an Israeli military vehicle was destroyed.
Israel’s army launched a major operation in Jabalia earlier this week, which has killed dozens of Palestinians.
The army sent messages to Palestinians in Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia on Tuesday, expelling them from their homes.
The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since October last year surpassed 42,000 on Wednesday evening, according to the health ministry.
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