GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 12 people on Tuesday, while the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command centre.

“Our crews retrieved 12 martyrs from the Mustafa Hafiz school, which was bombed by the Israeli occupation west of Gaza City,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians had sought refuge in the school, he said, amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said the school was targeted because it housed a command-and-control centre.

Bassal had earlier given a toll of seven dead and 15 wounded in the strike, which he said had hit the second floor of the school building. The school was reduced to rubble, with scores of Palestinian men and women, many holding children, fleeing the site after the strike.

Tel Aviv says bodies of six prisoners retrieved from Gaza tunnel

In recent weeks, the Israeli military has struck several schools across Gaza, primarily in Gaza City, accusing them of housing Hamas command centres, which the Palestinian group denies.

Earlier this month, the military had struck the Al-Tabieen School in Gaza City, which according to the civil defence agency killed 93 Palestinians, while the military said 31 fighters died.

Tens of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge in schools since the war broke out on October 7 after Hamas attacked southern Israel. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 40,173 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. Most of the dead in Gaza are women and children, according to the UN human rights office.

Bodies retrieved

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it retrieved the bodies of six prisoners from a tunnel in Gaza’s southern area of Khan Yunis after a battle with Palestinian fighters.

The prisoners were Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Chaim Perry, previously announced dead, and Avraham Munder, whose kibbutz of Nir Oz near Gaza announced his death earlier in the day.

Their families had been informed following intelligence analysis, the military said in a statement, later adding that the bodies were found on Monday night in a tunnel.

“During the operation, the forces located a tunnel shaft about 10 metres (yards) deep leading to an underground tunnel route where the bodies were found,” the military said. “The rescue was carried out after prolonged combat in a built-up area and in multi-story buildings” against fighters, some of whom were killed, it added.

Campaign group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said in a statement that the recovery of the bodies “provides their families with necessary closure and grants eternal rest to the murdered”.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2024