Gaza rescuers say 7 killed in Israeli strike on school

Palestinians rest on Thursday under the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. (Reuters)
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GAZA STRIP: Civil defense rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least seven people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas command center.

The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.

Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “seven martyrs, including children, and many wounded following an Israeli missile attack that targeted Al-Faluja School in Jabalia camp in north Gaza.”

The military said it carried out “precise strikes” targeting Hamas militants operating inside what it said was a command-and-control center at the Al-Faluja School.

Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.

A strike on the UN-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on Sept. 11 drew an international outcry.

In his address to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel to halt the bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza, singling out the US.

Abbas said that Washington continued to provide diplomatic cover and weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza despite the mounting death toll there, now at 41,534 according to the Health Ministry in the Strip.

“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank,” Abbas told the UN General Assembly.

“The US alone stood and said: ‘No, the fighting will continue.’ It did this by using the veto,” he said, referring to the veto repeatedly wielded to thwart censure in the UN Security Council of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

“It furnished Israel with the deadly weapons that it used to kill thousands of innocent civilians, children, and women.

“This further encouraged Israel to continuous aggression,” he added, saying that Israel “does not deserve” to be in the UN.