ISRAELI strikes have killed at least 46 people in the northern Gaza Strip after a school-turned-shelter was bombed.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said that at least 31 people were killed in a strike on a former school, which had been turned into a shelter for displaced people, in Gaza City.
The strike on the school in northern Gaza also wounded more than 55 people, said Fahmy Awad, head of the ministry’s emergency service.
He said the school was hit three times while people slept, setting their belongings ablaze. Footage circulating online showed rescuers struggling to extinguish fires and recovering charred remains.
The Israeli military said it targeted a militant command and control centre inside the school that Hamas and Islamic Jihad used to gather intelligence for attacks.
Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in residential areas. The National previously reported how former Palestinian hostages and Israeli soldiers said that troops are systematically forcing Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza.
In a separate attack, 15 people from the same family, including five women and two children, were killed in a strike on a home on Monday, Shifa Hospital said.
Israel renewed its bombardment of Gaza in March after breaking a ceasefire deal with Hamas. It has vowed to seize control of Gaza and keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and until it returns the remaining 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, from the October 7, 2023 attack.
More than half the hostages have been returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals, eight have been rescued, and Israeli forces have recovered the remains of dozens more.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than half of whom were women and children.
