At least 37 dead in Israeli attack on a Palestinian Refugee school in the Gaza Strip: this is known

The Israeli Army confirmed the attack and indicated that The school had a complex belonging to the Islamist group, where there were “terrorists” who participated in the murderous attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, who were eliminated.

“Between 20 and 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding there,” that they used the complex as a “forward operating base to launch attacks against Israeli forces,” Army spokesman Peter Lerner clarified to the media.

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Lerner indicated that this is the fifth case in the last month – the second only this week – in which the Army identifies “terrorist operatives” in schools with UNRWA flags, an entity that is in the crosshairs of Israel accused of having links with Hamas.

“They conducted terrorist operations in the school area while exploiting it and using it as a shelter. Several terrorists who were planning attacks and promoting terrorist activities against the troops in the immediate period were eliminated in the attack,” he added.

The Gazan government, controlled by Hamas, assured, however, that many of the victims were civilians and called the attack a “horrible massacre,” although Israel maintained that “measures were taken to reduce the risk of harm to uninvolved civilians” and that the attack had been canceled up to two times in recent days for that reason.

“Warplanes, directed by intelligence, carried out a precise attack against a Hamas compound embedded in a UNRWA school in Nuseirat,” said a military statement.

The Hamas government assured that the Army He launched at least three missiles at the school, where there were more than 500 refugees sleeping around 2 in the morning, and indicated that this is the 149th Israeli attack against displaced people. “The occupation has repeatedly committed these massacres in a brutal manner,” he noted.

The official Palestinian Wafa agency indicated that Israeli aviation attacked the upper floors of the school with a missile at 2:15 local time while people were sleeping.

According to the Army, Members of the Nukhba forces, the elite Hamas unit, whose agents participated in the attack in Israel on October 7, operated in the compound. which left some 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped.

“The fact that they are hiding in UNRWA schools will not deter us from operating against Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and all those who carried out the atrocities of October 7. They will not have a safe haven to hide in,” the spokesperson stressed.

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In January Israel accused a dozen UNRWA workers of participating in the October 7 attacks and then asserted that more than 200 of its employees have ties to Islamists; and a law is even pending approval in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) to declare the humanitarian organization, which has operated in the Palestinian territories since 1948, as a terrorist organization.

This caused almost twenty donor countries to cut their funding to UNRWA, but many have resumed it in the absence of conclusive evidence from Israel to prove such accusations. An independent investigation also failed to find clear evidence.

The attack caused dozens of wounded to arrive at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, which is already on the verge of collapse after the breakdown of one of its generators and has three times as many patients as it can care for. It is the only operational hospital in the center of the Strip to care for one million people.

This same hospital treated on Wednesday the 75 dead and dozens of wounded in the Israeli military operation in the Bureij refugee camp and part of Deir al Balah, in the center of the enclave. According to a hospital spokesperson, in the last 24 hours they have received about 140 deaths and 380 injuries.

Wafa also reported other aerial and artillery bombardments in the Bureij field – which already suffered a violent offensive on Wednesday – and Maghazi, also in the center of the Strip.

The agency also reports artillery attacks against neighborhoods in the south of Gaza City and in the northeast of Khan Yunis, as well as bombings with “intense fire” in Rafah, at the southern end of the enclave.

In Rafah, the Army confirmed having killed three alleged combatants who were trying to jump the separation fence of the Gaza Strip to attack soldiers operating in the area.

“A plane that was monitoring the terrorist cell attacked the terrorists and eliminated two of them. Another terrorist was eliminated by tank fire shortly after,” he said.

Eight months of war have caused more than 36,650 deaths and 83,300 injuries, in addition to some 10,000 missing under the rubble.according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, after adding 68 deaths and 235 injuries in the last 24 hours throughout the Strip.