Survivors of Israeli strike on Gaza school describe finding children’s bodies

Survivors of an Israeli airstrike on a UN school in central Gaza have described finding children’s bodies that had been torn apart by the blast, as Israeli attacks on the area continued for a second night. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gaza’s head of civil defence said his teams at al-Sardi school in Nuseirat found only civilians among the dead. Mahmoud Basal said the death toll from the attack was more than 40 and still climbing, because injured survivors could not get proper medical care.

The Israeli military said it had targeted “20 to 30” militants who it claimed used the school as a base, and was “not aware” of any civilian casualties. On Thursday a spokesperson gave the names of two Hamas members and seven members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad it said were killed in the strike.

The attack was part of a campaign in parts of central Gaza which Israeli ground forces had targeted earlier in the war before moving on. They have been drawn back by cells of fighters using insurgent warfare tactics.

Destroyed buildings viewed from shadows with smoke rising
Hamas still strong in areas ‘cleared’ by Israel in northern Gaza, say experts
Read more

At least 15 people were killed in airstrikes in the area on Thursday, Reuters reported, and in southern Rafah Israeli troops killed at least two others as they pushed west.

Mazen Jouda, a 45-year-old sports teacher who lives in Nuseirat, had left for two months at the start of the year to escape the ground invasion, before returning home. Now he wonders if he should leave again.

“Things are getting worse again, with that night [of the school attack] being one of the most difficult: we couldn’t sleep until morning because of all the bombing,” Jouda said.

The strike on the school was so loud Jouda’s children panicked and rushed into their parents’ room; and then the screaming of the injured began. The next morning Jouda went to the school, where the UN said 6,000 people were sheltering.

Three classrooms had been hit on one floor and three on another, and dazed survivors wandered around a courtyard scattered with debris.

Rajab was one of them. He was awake, talking with friends, when the missile hit and the room collapsed. “We did not understand what had happened until some young men came to dig us out from the rubble, and carried us downstairs.

“I got the news of the death of my little brother, who was 10 years old, and they had found him lying at the door of the classroom without his feet or hands. My sister was injured, I was hit by shrapnel in my feet and hands.” try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try

The post Survivors of Israeli strike on Gaza school describe finding children’s bodies appeared first on The Muslim News.