DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA
As the nation’s negotiators got ready to meet with foreign mediators on a potential cease-fire, Israeli aircraft struck a school used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least thirty people, including numerous children.
Among the dead brought from the girls school in Deir al-Balah to Al Aqsa Hospital were seven women and seven children. Israel’s military said that it struck a Hamas command center that was used to store “large quantities of weapons” and coordinate assaults against Israeli troops. The military’s assertion was rejected by Hamas.
Thousands of people were reportedly taking refuge at the school, which also housed a medical facility, according to civil defense officials in Gaza. Journalists for the Associated Press observed bodies wrapped in blankets and a dead toddler in an ambulance.
Classrooms were in ruins and walls were gapingly shattered. People picked through the garbage, looking for pillows and other indications of habitation.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, additional attacks on Saturday claimed the lives of atleast 12 civilians.
