Palestinian sources say 29 killed in Israeli attack on school in Gaza

Palestinian sources report that at least 29 people were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli attack on a school in Gaza that had been a shelter for Palestinian refugees, marking the fourth such attack in four days. The Israeli army told AFP that it is investigating the latest reports. This military entity has acknowledged that it has attacked three other schools used as shelters since Saturday. A hospital official at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where the victims were taken, stated that the entrance of Al-Awda school in Abasan was targeted, resulting in 29 deaths and dozens of injuries. The media office of the extremist group Hamas accused Israel of a "horrific massacre" and stated that the majority of the victims were women and children. The renewed operations of the Israeli army in the Shuja'iyya area of Gaza followed a "replenishment" of Hamas. One witness of the incident told AFP about the Tuesday attack: "We were sitting at the entrance of the school... suddenly, without warning, a rocket was fired." The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, had previously reported that at least 20 people were killed in the first three attacks on schools in Gaza. Israel claims that in each of the three attacks, it targeted militants hiding in the schools. On Saturday, an Israeli attack targeted a school in the Al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, which, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, resulted in 16 deaths. This school is overseen by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which stated that two thousand Palestinians were sheltering in the school at the time of the attack. The day after this incident, the "Holy Family" school in Gaza City was attacked, resulting in four deaths. On Monday, another UNRWA school in the Al-Nuseirat camp was targeted. Israel claims that in these attacks, it eliminated "several terrorists" hiding in the school. However, Hamas denies the accusation of using schools, hospitals, and other civilian sites for military purposes. The United States and many other Western countries consider Hamas a terrorist organization. According to UNRWA statistics, over 500 people have been killed in schools and other shelters of this UN agency in Gaza since the beginning of this war.