Palestinians Government has reported that deadly Israeli strike hit a Gaza City area school serving as a shelter on Saturday.
This came just as the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to hear Arab demands for a ceasefire in a meeting in Jordan.
Witnesses said an Israeli strike hit Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia refugee camp, killing and wounding many of the evacuees who had taken shelter there. At least 15 people died and dozens more were wounded, Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the head of al-Shifa Hospital, said of the school incident.
Reuters pictures of the aftermath showed broken furniture and other belongings lying on the ground, patches of blood and people crying.
“People were preparing breakfast, when suddenly bombing started. I found my two girls, one of them was martyred and her head was hit, the second was wounded in her leg… the other girl as well was wounded with shrapnel,” one man said in video footage obtained by Reuters.
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The ministry of health in Gaza said another Israeli missile strike killed two women at the door of the Nasser Children Hospital. Several more people were injured, it said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on either reported strike and Reuters was not immediately able to verify any more details.
Hours earlier, Gaza health officials had said 15 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on an ambulance on Friday evening that was part of a convoy carrying injured Palestinians at Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa.
Israel’s military said it had identified and hit an ambulance “being used by an Hamas terrorist cell” and that a number of Hamas fighters were killed.
The Palestinian health ministry challenged Israel to provide proof that the ambulance was carrying militants. Israel said it intended to release additional information.