BBCWarning: This story contains details that may upset some
Israeli airstrikes kill many children Twelve days ago at a former school The BBC was told the attack targeted a local Hamas figure.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a Hamas “command and control center” was embedded inside the compound in Gaza City, which was the target of a “precision attack” on September 21.
The Hamas health ministry said 22 people were killed, including 13 children and 6 women.
According to the Ministry of Health, displaced people stayed in this school, which was closed during the war.
A young woman, Amal, told the BBC she was inside the school building when it was hit and saw bodies “dismembered”.
“What have we children done? We wake up and go to sleep scared,” she said.
“At least protect the schools; We don’t have schools or houses – where do we go?”
Sources told the BBC that one of those killed was a local Hamas figure, meaning many civilians died because of a single key target.
Huda Alhadat lost two children – son Muhammad, 13, and daughter Hanan, 12.
“I was coming from the hallway when the missile fell. “I came and saw my husband shouting, ‘My children, my children, my children’,” she told the BBC.
“I asked him, ‘Where are they?’ I looked for them and found them under the rubble.
In the twelve days since the airstrikes, there have been at least eight deadly strikes in Gaza on school buildings housing displaced families – the latest in a series of attacks on such buildings, which offer little protection.
UNICEF says more than 50% of schools used as shelters in Gaza have been directly affected by the current conflict, with “devastating consequences for children and families”.
In each of the recent strikes, the IDF issued public statements that the former schools housed Hamas terrorists or “command and control” centers.
In their public statement about the September 21 strike, the IDF incorrectly named the former school they attacked – Al-Zeitoun C – instead of another nearby school, Al-Falah.
By talking to local residents and comparing videos of the aftermath of the attack with satellite images, we confirmed that Al-Zeytoun C was the victim.
Authorities in Hamas-run Gaza also named it al-Zaytoun C.
The corresponding area is in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood and includes four distinct schools: Al-Falah, and Al-Zeitoun A, B and C.
When asked about the misnaming of the school, the IDF declined to comment.
Neither would comment on who was targeted.
The Hamas-run government media office said the Israeli army had carried out a “terrible massacre” by bombing the al-Zaytoun C school, a refuge for displaced people. Apart from those killed, the attack also caused serious injuries, including nine children who had to have their limbs amputated, it said.
Dr. Amjad Eliva, an emergency physician who treated the injured in the strike, described more than 30 injured people arriving at his hospital, saying they were “mostly among children and women, with amputation cases and very serious injuries.”
He described one of the dead as six months pregnant.
This was confirmed by images of a fetus at the site of the strike, and residents said the dead woman was Bara Deravi, who died with her two young daughters, Isra and Iman.
Additional reporting by Paul Brown
