Gaza health ministry says 30 killed in Israel strike on school

Palestinians flee from a school where they had taken refuge, after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on July 27, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said an Israeli strike hit a school housing a field hospital Saturday, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 100.

The Israeli military said it carried out a strike on the school targeting Hamas “terrorists” operating from there. 

“A short while ago, the targeting of Khadija school, which had a field medical unit inside it, in Deir el-Balah area, resulted in 30 martyrs and more than 100 wounded,” the health ministry in Gaza said in a statement. 

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that the school was housing about 4,000 displaced people who had taken refuge there.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike was carried out following “precise… intelligence of terrorists operating in a Hamas compound and control centre inside the Khadija school”.

“In parallel, the terrorists developed and stored large quantities of weapons inside the compound.”

The field hospital located inside the school belonged to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, according to hospital director Khalil al-Daqran.