The Israeli military targeted a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City early Monday morning, setting classrooms on fire and killing at least 36 people, including many women and children.
Footage of the aftermath of the strike shows rescue workers pulling charred bodies from the rubble, and a video that has spread on social media appears to show a young girl attempting to escape flames after the attack. The little girl was identified as 7-year-old Ward al-Sheikh Khalil, who survived the attack but lost five siblings and her mother.
The Israeli attack hit the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School with three separate strikes while the Palestinians sheltering there were sleeping. Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said hundreds of people were sheltering at the time and that the majority of those killed were women and children.
Among the dead were a father and five of his children. Ahmed Sameeh, a displaced Palestinian who survived the attack, told Al Jazeera Arabic that his daughter was wounded and that the people sheltering at the school were “nothing but defenseless, peaceful civilians.”
Israel made its usual claim that it targeted a Hamas “command and control center” without providing any evidence.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes had killed a total of 52 people so far on Monday. The al-Shifa Hospital said an Israeli attack in Jabalia, northern Gaza, killed 16 members of the same family, including five women and two children.
The latest violence in Gaza comes as Palestinians are still facing starvation, as Israel has only allowed a trickle of aid to enter the territory after more than 11 weeks of a total blockade. Aid agencies have had difficulties distributing food due to constant Israeli strikes and the looting of trucks.
