By Emma Graham-Harrison

JERUSALEM – Israel bombed a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza in the early hours of Thursday (6) morning, killing at least 33 people including 23 women and children, according to hospital records and an eyewitness.

Missiles hit the second and third floors of the al-Sardi school in Deir al-Balah, where the UN said about 6,000 people were living. UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called for an investigation into the attack, with scores also reported injured.

The Israeli military said it targeted “20 or 30” Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who took part in the October 7 attack and were using the school as an operations centre. The military spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner said he was not aware of any civilian casualties.

Ayman Rashed, a shelter resident displaced from Gaza City, said there had been families in the classrooms that were hit, and he helped carry five bodies, including an old man and two children, out from the wreckage.

“It was dark, with no electricity, and we struggled to get out the victims,” he told the Associated Press (AP), adding that the blast had shattered one child’s skull open.

Many of the dead were taken to al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where their bodies were lined up in the courtyard, videos on social media showed. Fourteen children and nine women were among the dead, according to an AP reporter and hospital records.

The same night, six victims of another Israeli strike on a house in the area were brought to the morgue at the hospital. Even before the deaths early on Thursday, medics at al-Aqsa were already struggling to deal with a wave of casualties from a new Israeli offensive in the area, the charity Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) said.

Eight months into a war launched with a vow to “destroy Hamas”, the militant group has proved resilient across north and central Gaza. Israeli troops redeployed to the area are facing “guerrilla warfare”, Lerner said, with small cells using rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and explosive devices to attack.

He said one of those units was using the school as a command and control centre, without providing evidence. He also said Israel had taken steps to protect civilians, including calling off a planned strike on the same site twice in previous days.

“[Hamas] understand that we are cautious and careful around UN facilities, and they are trying effectively to use the UN facilities and building as their iron dome,” he said, referring to Israel’s missile defence system. “They will not have a safe place.”

Schools and refugee shelters are among civilian buildings granted special protection in conflict under international law. Israel says Hamas exploits this protection, illegally using the buildings and civilians inside as human shields.

Hamas officials said its forces were not operating from the school, the AP reported.

The UNRWA communications director, Juliette Touma, said the school was “possibly hit several times” and the number of reported dead was between 35 and 45, with scores more injured. The UN has not yet been able to confirm casualty figures.

Since the start of the war more than 170 UNRWA buildings have been hit, the “vast majority” schools turned into shelters. These attacks have killed more than 450 displaced people living there and injured nearly 1,500.

“We remind all parties to the conflict that schools and other UN premises must never be used for military or fighting purposes,” Touma said. “UN facilities must be protected at all times.

“We call for investigations into all violations against the United Nations including attacks on our buildings.”

UNRWA “is not in a position to confirm this claim from the Israeli army/ authorities” that Hamas fighters were using the school as a base, she added.

The strike hit al-Sardi school at about 1:30 a.m. local time (2330 BST) when people sheltering there were asleep, the journalist Hind Khoudary said in a video taken at the school that shows pools of blood beside mattresses in a room hit by a missile.

In the courtyard below children and adults mill around, near balconies hung with bedding and washing. “Children, and women are terrified, but unfortunately they don’t have anywhere to go. They are still sheltering in the school,” she said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it hit the school to target “Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists … who were operating in the compound”. In a statement, it said “several” were eliminated.

At least 70 dead people and more than 300 wounded were brought to al-Aqsa treatment centre on Wednesday, MSF said, pushing the battered medical system in the area to the point of collapse.

With the Rafah crossing to Egypt closed, there are no longer medical evacuations for the most severely injured.

Two of the children laid out dead in al-Aqsa hospital after previous strikes had died beside their mother, their father, Abu Mohammed Abu Saif, told Reuters. “This is not war, it is destruction that words are unable to express,” he said.

Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, mostly civilians, according to health officials in the territory, who say thousands more dead are buried under the rubble.

The war was sparked by an attack by Hamas in southern Israel in October last year when militants killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.

On Wednesday two food security reports said many Palestinians in Gaza had been killed by months of extreme hunger and permanent damage had been caused to children through malnutrition, even before famine is officially declared.

The US-based famine early warning system network, Fews Net, said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July. Israel controls the entry of food aid medical supplies and fuel to Gaza.

-theguardian.com