At least 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Daraj district, east of Gaza City.
Gaza’s civil defense agency, operating under the Hamas-run government, described the incident as a "horrific massacre."
The Israeli military claimed the strike targeted a "Hamas control center," but no evidence was provided to support this, and all available information suggests the school was being used as a shelter.
Graphic footage from the scene shows body parts strewn among the rubble, with health officials saying they are unable to match all to their owners.
"Three Israeli rockets hit the school that was housing displaced Palestinians," Gaza's civil defense agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Israel had destroyed at least 17 schools last month.
"The UN Human Rights Office is horrified by the unfolding pattern of Israeli Defense Force (IDF) strikes on schools in Gaza killing internally displaced Palestinians seeking shelter there," the office said.
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur, issued a statement condemning the world’s indifference to mass bloodshed in Gaza following this morning’s attack on the al-Tabin school.
“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time”, Albanese wrote in a post on X.
Gaza: In the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century, Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one 'safe zone' at the time. With US and European… https://t.co/bHmrFbySYi
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) August 10, 2024
“May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them, honouring the most basic meaning of international law.”
The Gaza health ministry says Israel's military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly the entire population of 2.3 million.
Health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilian.
Israel claims that at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters.
The International Court of Justice found in January this year that Gaza faced a "real and imminent risk of genocide" as a result of the war, which Israel denies.
