GAZA STRIP — At least 12 people were killed on Tuesday in a fresh Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza, according to the Gaza civil defense agency. The attack on the Mustafa Hafiz school, located west of Gaza City, resulted in significant casualties among the thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense, confirmed the death toll and described the school as a shelter for those fleeing the ongoing conflict. “Our crews retrieved 12 martyrs from the Mustafa Hafiz school,” Bassal told AFP. The strike, which targeted the second floor of the building, left the school in ruins and led to a chaotic scene as survivors, including many with children, fled the site.
The Israeli military, however, defended the strike, claiming that the school was used as a Hamas command-and-control center. This assertion is part of a broader pattern of Israeli military actions in Gaza, with several schools recently hit under similar claims.
In a recent escalation, earlier this month, the Israeli military also targeted the Al-Tabieen School in Gaza City, which the civil defense agency reported as having killed 93 Palestinians. The Israeli military's count was notably lower, listing 31 fighters as deceased in that strike.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has drastically worsened since the onset of the conflict on October 7, triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel. Israel's subsequent military offensive has resulted in the deaths of at least 40,173 Palestinians, with a significant number being women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the UN human rights office.
In a related development, the Israeli military announced the retrieval of six bodies from a tunnel in Gaza's Khan Yunis area. The deceased, identified as Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Chaim Perry, and Avraham Munder, had been reported missing following their abduction. Their recovery was confirmed after intense fighting in the area.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum expressed that the return of these bodies “provides their families with necessary closure and grants eternal rest to the murdered.”
The situation in Gaza remains dire, with ongoing hostilities exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.