UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS DETAILS
By Anadolu staff
ANKARA (AA) – At least 30 Palestinians were killed and scores injured in Israeli airstrikes on two schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, the Civil Defense Agency said.
The attacks targeted the Hassan Salama and Al-Nasr schools west of Gaza City, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.
“Around 80% of the victims are children,” he added in a statement.
The spokesman called the scenes at the two bombed schools as “tragic.”
"There is no longer a safe place in Gaza City, and the (Israeli) occupation does not respect any sanctities,” he said.
On Saturday, at least 16 people were killed when Israeli warplanes hit a school sheltering displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
According to Gaza’s government media office, at least 172 centers housing displaced people have been targeted in Israeli attacks since last Oct. 7, including 152 schools.
“More than 1,040 people have been killed in attacks on schools, and these massacres are part of Israel’s ongoing crimes against our Palestinian people for the 10th consecutive month,” it added in a statement.
The media office held the Israeli occupation and the US administration responsible for “the continuing massacres against the displaced and civilians." It called for piling pressure on Tel Aviv and Washington to halt the ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last October by Hamas.
Nearly 39,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,400 injured, according to local health authorities.
Almost 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi