Hamas-run health ministry says Israeli attack on Gaza school kills 22

An Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza City killed at least 22 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

The school was closed during the war and is now housing displaced people, the Ministry of Health said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted a Hamas command centre that Israel said the militant group was using to “plan and carry out terrorist attacks”.

Hamas has denied using schools and other civilian sites for military purposes.

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The Hamas-run government media office said those killed in Saturday’s airstrike in the al-Zaytoun area included several children and six women.

Gaza’s civil defense authority reported a similar death toll, adding that one of the women was pregnant.

Several graphic videos of the aftermath of the attack reviewed by BBC Verify appear to corroborate this.

Other footage shows children among the victims. Some are seen with serious injuries, including missing parts of their legs. Others are seen lying motionless while adults attempt to perform CPR.

BBC Verify confirmed the location by comparing details seen in the background with satellite and ground images of the target school.

The IDF said it had taken steps to minimize the risk of harm to civilians and accused Hamas of exploiting civilian infrastructure.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hamas “systematically violates international law by operating from within civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and exploiting Gazan civilians for terrorist activities”.

Also on Saturday, the Health Ministry said four of its staff were killed and six wounded in an Israeli “attack” on a Health Ministry warehouse in the Musabah area of ​​southern Gaza. The ministry did not specify whether the incident was an airstrike.

The BBC has contacted the IDF for comment on the report of medical staff deaths.

Several other schools have also been hit, some multiple times, by Israeli airstrikes since the latest conflict with Hamas began on October 7.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) six of its employees said was killed in an Israeli airstrike on al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which is being used as a shelter by thousands of displaced Palestinians.

Unrwa said this was the fifth time the school had been attacked since October 7.

The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precision strike on terrorists” who were planning an attack from the school. The military alleged that nine of those killed were members of the militant wing of Hamas and three were employees of Unrwa.

Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on October 7 last year, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza that killed more than 41,000 people, according to the Health Ministry.