At least 20 people have been killed and dozens more injured after an Israeli airstrike targeting a school in Gaza, health authorities have said.
Reuters news agency reported the number of dead, citing medics, with the school in the Daraj neighbourhood having been used to shelter displaced people who had fled previous bombardments.
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Medical and civil defence sources on the ground confirmed women and children were among the casualties, with several charred bodies arriving at al Shifa and al Ahli hospitals.
An ambulance at the scene
The scene inside the school has been described as horrific, with more victims feared trapped under the rubble.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
It comes as a medical charity chief has spoken out about the deaths of a doctor’s nine children in an Israeli airstrike on Friday in Gaza, and the “almost impossibility” of providing care in the region.
Chris Lockyear – the secretary general of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders – told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the bodies of nine of paediatrician Alaa al Najjar’s 10 children arrived at the Nasser Medical Complex, in the city of Khan Younis, while she was on shift.
The attack in southern Gaza on Friday also left her husband, Hamdi al Najjar, severely wounded, and her only surviving son, Adam, aged 11, in a critical condition. The dead brothers and sisters ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old.
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The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
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