The Gaza Civil Defense announced on Sunday the deaths of 28 people in several strikes by the Israeli army during the night, including four children in a school housing displaced people, where the army claims to have “targeted” “terrorists from Hamas.
“An airstrike targeting the Mousa ibn Nousayr school, which hosts thousands of displaced people in eastern Gaza City, left eight martyrs, including four children,” the spokesperson for the Gaza Strip told AFP. Civil Defense of the Palestinian Territory, Mahmoud Bassal.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had carried out a “targeted strike against Hamas terrorists who were operating” within the establishment “to prepare terrorist attacks against Israeli troops and the State” during the night from Saturday to Sunday. of Israel.
“Multiple measures were taken before the strike to reduce the risk of hitting civilians,” she said.
According to Civil Defense, “an Israeli airstrike targeting the home of the Abu Samra family in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip,” left 13 other victims.
Civil Defense also reported four deaths “after a civilian car was targeted by an Israeli drone” on Sunday morning in Gaza City, and three “unidentified” deaths in “an Israeli airstrike in east of the town of Rafah”, in the south of the territory.
Pope Francis condemned on Saturday the “cruelty” of an Israeli strike which killed seven children in Gaza the day before, according to Civil Defense.
A “blacklisting” denounced by Israel, which accused the pope of having “double standards” and of being “disconnected” from the “real context” of his “fight against terrorism”.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages dead or killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign of retaliation in the Palestinian territory, the majority civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas government for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
