'Nowhere to go' Missiles strike UN school used as shelter in Gaza

Israel bombed a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza in the early hours of yesterday morning, killing at least 33 people including 23 women and children, according to hospital records and a witness.

- Emma Graham-Harrison

The Israeli military said it targeted "20 or 30" Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who had taken part in the 7 October attack and were using the school as an operations centre. The military spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner said he was not aware of any civilian casualties.

Missiles hit the second and third floors of the al-Sardi school in Deir al-Balah, where the UN said about 6,000 people were living. Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called for an investigation into the attack, with scores of people also reported injured.

Ayman Rashed, a shelter resident displaced from Gaza City, said there had been families in the classrooms that were hit, and that he helped carry five bodies, including an old man and two children, out from the wreckage.

"It was dark, with no electricity, and we struggled to get out the victims," he told the Associated Press.

Many of the dead were taken to al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, where their bodies were lined up in the courtyard. Fourteen children and nine women were among the dead, according to an AP reporter and hospital records.

A US-made missile, the GBU 39, was used in the strike, fragments captured in videos and photos from the site show. It is the same type of weapon used to bomb near Unrwa sites in southern Gaza last week, an attack that caused fires in crowded tent areas and left at least 45 dead.