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.”
Israeli military action in Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and injured over 90,000, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. As of early July, nearly 2 million people had been displaced in the enclave – almost its entire population, according to figures from the United Nations.
Israel launched the military offensive on October 7, after militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel. At least 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 others abducted in the Hamas-led assault, according to Israeli authorities.
Basal said many of the dead were yet to be identified and others transferred to hospital are seriously injured.
“There are still large quantities of body parts and torn bodies inside Al-Ahli hospital,” he said. “Families are having a hard time identifying their children.”
One woman, known as Um Ahmed, told CNN that she could not find her husband in the aftermath of the strike. “I went to look for my husband and I didn’t see anybody, they were all in pieces,” she said.
Um Ahmed told CNN the mosque was full of young people who were “all in pieces and dismembered” in the aftermath of the strike.
“The bodies here are not identifiable… they are all dismembered body parts,” said a man who came to check on the school after hearing of the strike during his morning prayer.
Saturday’s attack follows similar lethal strikes by Israel over the past week.
Airstrikes on multiple school buildings sheltering displaced Palestinians last weekend killed at least 47, including many children, and injured dozens more.
Videos obtained by CNN from the area of last Sunday’s strike – which the IDF also claimed targeted Hamas infrastructure – show extensive destruction and dead bodies in a schoolyard. In the videos, medics and rescuers carry injured children to waiting ambulances.
Palestinian officials told CNN that Israel did not give civilians any warning before the airstrikes occurred.
This is a developing story and will be updated. Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.
