Israel Criticized After Strike Kills Scores in Gaza

[Pelican Press 0]

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******* Criticized After Strike ****** Scores in Gaza

An ******** airstrike early Saturday hit a school compound in northern Gaza where displaced Palestinians were sheltering, ******** dozens of people, according to Gazan officials.

The ******** military acknowledged the *******, but

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facility for military operations and attacks on *******.

The strike in Gaza City, the latest in a string of attacks on schools turned into shelters, drew strong condemnation from the ********* Union and the ******* Nations, with Josep Borrell Fontelles, the top E.U. diplomat, saying, “There’s no justification for these massacres.”

The strikes have taken place alongside mounting international pressure on ******* to conclude a deal for a cease-***** and an exchange of hostages held in Gaza and ************ detainees, with President Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar saying this week that “the time has come.”

The Gaza Civil Defense emergency service said more than 90 people were *******. But that number could not be confirmed, and two doctors at a hospital in the area gave slightly lower totals. Gaza health officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants when reporting casualties.

The ******** military did not provide a ****** toll. But it questioned the Gaza authorities’ statements, saying that its own assessment of the incident was at odds with the reported ****** toll, and that more than a dozen militants were ******* in the strike.

Daniel Hagari, the military’s chief spokesman, said that intelligence gathered by ******* indicated that “no women and children were present” in the building struck by ******** forces. Regarding the casualty count, he said: “These figures do not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, and they do not match the information” held by the ******** military.

The Civil Defense emergency service in Gaza said that the strike hit as more than 200 people gathered before sunrise in a prayer hall to worship. More than 2,000 displaced people had been staying at the shelter, the Al-Tabaeen school in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, the emergency service said.

The ******* was launched as the ******* States, Egypt and Qatar mounted a new effort to restart negotiations for a truce in Gaza next week, with fears rising of an escalation in the conflict between ******* and Iran. Analysts said President Biden and his allies hope the prospect of a cease-***** in Gaza will dampen tensions between Iran, its militant allies and *******, and put brakes on the momentum toward a regional war.

For days, ******* has tensely awaited retaliation for the ************** of top leaders from ****** and Hezbollah, both groups backed by Iran. President Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar called Thursday for more talks between ******* and ****** to end the war in Gaza, saying they would be willing to present a “final bridging proposal” to both sides.

There is “no further time to waste,” the leaders said in a ****** statement, a sign of the growing impatience over the stalled peace talks. Hours later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of ******* said he would send negotiators to talks next Thursday, while ****** has yet to respond to the offer.

In Gaza, however, *******’s campaign — now in its 11th month — dragged on.

At least 17 school buildings have been targeted over the last month, ******** at least 163 Palestinians, according to the ******* Nations. The ******** military said ****** has cynically exploited the compounds, and the displaced people sheltering inside, for its own protection; international law experts say ******* needs to do more to avoid harming civilians.

The ******** military defended Saturday’s *******, saying in a statement that “the strike was carried out using three precise munitions,” and that several steps were taken to mitigate civilian casualties, “including the use of a small warhead, aerial surveillance and intelligence information.” At least 19 militants from the ****** and Islamic ****** armed groups were ******* in the *******, the statement said.

“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active ****** and Islamic ****** military facility,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an ******** military spokesman, without providing details. He added that the information released by the Gaza authorities in the past has “proven to be sorely unreliable.”

The Gaza Health Ministry’s numbers are believed to be broadly reliable, though there is often uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of specific strikes, and the destruction of the territory’s health system has made tolls ******* to track.

Saturday’s airstrike hit two floors, one of which was used for communal prayers and the other for sheltering women and children, a Civil Defense spokesman, Mahmoud Basal, said. He said the prayer hall inside the school complex had been used for worship since the beginning of the 10-month war.

Mr. Basal said 11 children and six women were among those ******* in the strike on Saturday, adding that many people were seriously wounded.

Many of those wounded in the ******** strike, including children, were arriving with severe burns covering much of their bodies, said Tayseer al-Tanna, a surgeon at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, who called the scene “very difficult to watch.”

Dr. al-Tanna said doctors had been forced to amputate several badly burned and mangled limbs since early morning. They had almost no painkillers to give their patients, he said, and did not have enough time to fully sterilize the already overused equipment between operations.

Fadel Naim, a medical official at Al-Ahli Hospital who served for years as dean of the medical college at the Islamic University of Gaza, widely seen as a ****** stronghold, said the hospital had received at least 70 bodies since Saturday morning. The strike was followed by a flood of people searching for loved ones missing in the wake of the **********, he said.

Khamis Elessi, a doctor at the same hospital, in Gaza City, said more than 73 identified bodies were brought to the hospital morgue, along with another 10 who have yet to be identified because they were disfigured in the **********.

******** forces have recently been scaling up military attacks throughout Gaza in areas where they had previously fought ******, saying the fighters had regrouped. ****** has fought a dogged insurgency, resisting ******** attempts to quash the group. That has raised concerns in ******* that a decisive military victory may be out of reach — even as Gazan civilians continue to face dire conditions.

Troops had previously moved in on the Al-Daraj neighborhood in early July as part of a renewed ground offensive in Gaza City. But the ******** military appears to have wound down its ground operation there, even as it continued to conduct airstrikes in the area.

The U.N. and other rights organizations have repeatedly said that there is no safe place in Gaza, as areas people are ordered to evacuate to are subsequently targeted by ******** airstrikes. Almost the entire population of Gaza — more than two million Palestinians — has been displaced, many people multiple times.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for ************ refugees, called Saturday’s deadly ******* “another day of horror” in Gaza. He called on all sides not to harm civilians or use schools for military purposes.

“It’s time for these horrors unfolding under our watch to end,” he said on social media. “We cannot let the unbearable become a new norm.”

Ameera Harouda and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.

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