GAZA -At least 93 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on a school and mosque in Gaza sheltering displaced people, according to local officials.
Gaza Civil Defense said people were performing dawn prayers at the Al-Tabi’in compound in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City when it was hit overnight into Saturday. Israel confirmed it carried out the strike, saying Hamas was operating there. “We recovered at least 90 people who had been killed,” Gaza Civil Defense Spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told CNN, adding that “many of them are torn apart, many are still unidentified.”
Videos seen by CNN of the aftermath of the strike show a large number of bodies strewn on the ground. Witnesses said there was no advance warning of the attack. “All of these people who were targeted were civilians, unarmed children, the elderly, men and women,” said Fares Afana, director of ambulance and emergency in northern Gaza. “These were innocent people praying… where is the entire world?” said one man, who lost his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren in the strike.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed to CNN that it hit the compound, saying its air force “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control center embedded” in the building. The military also said that before the airstrike, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information.”
After CNN asked the IDF for evidence supporting its claim the compound harbored a command and control center, it said it had intelligence saying about 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters operated from the building. The IDF also disputed the death toll given by Gazan authorities. CNN cannot independently verify the figures. Saturday’s strike is the fifth on a school in Gaza by the Israeli military since last Sunday, according to CNN’s previous reporting. The UN Human Rights Office earlier this week said it was “horrified by the unfolding pattern” of strikes on schools in Gaza, according to a statement on August 5th, adding that “such attacks are escalating.” (CNN)…[+]