At least 10 children killed in Israeli bombing of school in northern Gaza

At least 15 people, including 10 children, were killed in an Israeli army bombing attack on the Halima al-Sadia school in Jabalia (northern Gaza) around midnight on Thursday and Friday, which housed refugees, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa .

Images released by media outlets such as Quds (linked to Hamas) and independent Gazan journalists after the attack show about six bodies wrapped in blankets. Among them, the body of a child, uncovered, was found.

Most of the remaining schools in the Gaza Strip have become shelters for the displaced population. Ninety percent of the total 2.1 million have become shelters, according to the UN refugee agency for Palestine (UNRWA).

Project Hope, the aid group that runs the clinic, called the attack a violation of international law. According to the U.S.-based organization, those gathered there were waiting to receive treatment for malnutrition and infections when the attack occurred.

“This morning, innocent families were mercilessly attacked as they waited in line for the gates to open,” said Project Hope Executive Director Rabih Torbay.

“Angry, horrified, and heartbroken, we can no longer adequately communicate how we feel.”

Video footage from the scene after the attack shows emergency crews collecting the wounded and bodies in the middle of the night, surrounded by hundreds of people watching or helping load stretchers into ambulances.

"Between July 1 and 8, attacks were reported against at least seven schools housing internally displaced persons, including some that had already been attacked the previous week," in attacks that killed 42 people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released yesterday.

OCHA said, however, that many Gazans are returning to these damaged schools due to the lack of shelter throughout the enclave.

According to OCHA, 85% of the Strip is currently under Israeli evacuation orders or has been converted into a militarized zone for the Israeli army.

In this context, almost the entire population remains crowded either on the beaches of Mawasi in the south (about 425,000 Gazans) or in Gaza City (north).

In the North Gaza Governorate (which includes the towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun), most residents have been displaced to the capital, Gaza City, where estimates place around one million people.

Since Israel launched its offensive against Gaza on October 7, 2023, in response to the Hamas attack on its territory that day (in which Gazan militants killed an estimated 1,200 people), the Israeli military has killed nearly 57,800 Gazans.

For its part, the Israel Defense Forces claimed to have targeted a Hamas terrorist and regretted any harm to civilians. The Israeli military added that the incident was under investigation.