Daily Times

Rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli air strike on a religious school housing displaced Palestinians killed 93 people on Saturday, sparking international condemnation despite Israel’s insistence that it was targeting militants.

AFP could not independently verify the toll which, if confirmed, would be one of the largest from a single strike during 10 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants since Hamas’s October 7 attack.

The bombardment of Al-Tabieen school and mosque drew criticism from across the Middle East and beyond alongside calls for a ceasefire, after international mediators invited the warring sides to resume talks towards a long-sought truce and hostage-release deal. Civil defence rescuers in the Hamas-ruled territory said three Israeli missiles hit the complex in Gaza City while people were performing dawn prayers. “They dropped a missile on them while they were just praying,” said one woman, mourning over a dead child shrouded in a plastic body bag.

Israel’s military said it had “precisely struck” Al-Tabieen, which spokesman Nadav Shoshani added on social media platform X housed a “military facility” with “approximately 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants” including commanders. Hamas denounced the “dangerous escalation”, while the Palestinian group’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah called it a “horrific massacre”.

Iran, which backs both militant groups and had accused Israel of wanting to spread war in the Middle East following high-profile killings in Tehran and Beirut, condemned the “barbaric attack”. “Those who were inside the mosque were all killed,” said local resident Abu Wassim. “Even the floor above, where women and children were sleeping, was completely burned.”

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “bodies were torn apart. It reminds us of the first days of the war in the Gaza Strip.” With nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people displaced at least once during the war, many have sought refuge in school buildings, which have been hit at least 14 times since July 6, according to an AFP tally.

Israel has made similar accusations of armed activities after strikes on school shelters, while Hamas has denied using civilian facilities for military aims.

The attack left dead and wounded strewn around the ground floor of the two-storey complex with a courtyard, where debris lay inside and out, AFPTV images showed.

The upper floor was partially blown out and charred. Bassal told a press conference that 11 children and six women were among those killed at the school shelter, “and there are many unidentified body parts”.

Jordan’s foreign ministry said the timing was an indication of Israel’s efforts to “obstruct and thwart” the latest mediation effort. One of the mediators, Qatar, called for an “urgent international investigation”, while Turkey decried a “new crime against humanity” and claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted “to sabotage ceasefire negotiations”.

Hamas’s October 7 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.