Israel killed at least 100 Palestinians at a school being used as a shelter for displaced people in central Gaza City on Saturday, according to Gaza officials.

The attack came one day after Israeli tanks pushed back into Khan Younis, the largest city in Gaza’s south, forcing war-weary families to once again flee to the unknown.

Israel dropped leaflets on eastern Khan Younis ordering residents and displaced people sheltering there to “evacuate from an area that has already seen repeated waves of fighting,” Reuters reported.

Many hoped to find shelter in al-Mawasi, a coastal area in southern Gaza where an Israeli airstrike killed at least six Palestinians, including journalists Tamim Abu Muamar and Abdullah al-Sousi, on Friday.

Earlier in the week, on 5 August, eight Palestinians including five officers were reported killed when a Gaza police car being used to distribute aid was targeted in Deir al-Balah.

Nadi Salout, a father of four young children and a staff member with the World Central Kitchen was killed in an Israeli airstrike near Deir al-Balah on 7 August, according to the organization.

At least 287 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October.

School attacked without warning

The government media office in Gaza said that more than 100 people were killed in Saturday’s attack on Tabaeen school, which reportedly occurred without warning during dawn prayers.

The school is located in al-Daraj, a neighborhood in central Gaza City. On 7 August, Israel issued evacuation orders in northern Gaza, instructing residents of areas including Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun to go to shelters in central Gaza City – the area that was targeted on Saturday.

During a press conference, Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said at least 93 people were killed, including six women and 11 children.

Many of those killed were shredded or burned beyond recognition, as documented in horrific video and photos of the carnage. Others who were present at the school remained unaccounted for after the massacre.

Video broadcast by Al Jazeera showed what the broadcaster’s correspondent Anas al-Sharif said was an “indescribable” scene as a camera panned across a room containing countless bodies in pieces:

Pattern of attacks on shelters

The deadly strike on Saturday was the latest in a series of deadly attacks on facilities sheltering displaced people.

The civil defense spokesperson said that Israel had attacked 13 shelters since the beginning of August.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Friday that Israel had attacked nine schools being used as shelters in Gaza City in eight days, killing nearly 80 Palestinians and injuring more than 140 more.

Other victims “were buried beneath the rubble and could not be retrieved due to the lack of the necessary tools,” the Geneva-based group added.

The UN human rights office said Saturday’s attack was “at least the 21st strike on a school, each serving as a shelter … since 4 July.”

The UN office added that “these strikes have resulted in at least 274 fatalities, including women and children.”

Israel’s attempted justification

Israel claimed that it killed 19 operatives with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad during the attack and accused the resistance groups of using the school as a command center – repeating previous attempts to justify strikes on schools, hospitals and other civilian targets.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson claimed without evidence that the number of fatalities given by Palestinian officials was inflated.

“This was verified by intelligence, and the strike was carried out using three small, precise munitions which cannot cause the scale of damage that the Palestinians are reporting,” the spokesperson said.

But despite Israel’s statements that it had taken measures to avoid harm to civilians, the UN human rights office said that the “systematic attacks” on shelters “suggest a failure to strictly comply with obligations required by international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.”

The attacks on shelters occur “in the context where more than 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced [and] while the Israeli military continues detonating residential buildings and restricting the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance,” the UN office added.

Noting Israel’s oft-used claim that the targeted shelters were being used by Palestinian armed groups, the UN office said that this does not relieve Israel of its “obligation to comply strictly” with the laws of war.

Hamas rejects Israeli claims

In a statement published on its Telegram channel, Hamas rejected Israel’s claims, saying that no militants were at the Tabaeen school and that its fighters are under strict orders to not congregate among civilians so as “to spare them from Zionist targeting.”

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also said its initial investigation indicated there was no presence of any armed groups at the school, which it said was sheltering more than 2,500 displaced people.

“The school was sheltering hundreds of children whose families felt safe there without feeling in danger, according to survivors’ testimonies,” the rights group stated.

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said on Saturday that Israel’s brutal crimes in Gaza, which receive a green light from Washington, are aimed at pushing Palestinians out of the territory.

US weapons

Many observers noted the timing of the especially horrific massacre, following 10 months of relentless atrocities, to the joint statement made by the US, Qatar and Egypt giving Israel and Hamas a deadline of 15 August to reconvene negotiations towards a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

Congress approved $14 billion in additional funding for Israel in April.

“Footage of the aftermath filmed by CNN showed parts of an explosive device that Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician, confirmed were from a GBU-39 small diameter bomb,” the American broadcaster added, noting that the munition is manufactured by Boeing.

The statement repeated Israel’s unsubstantiated claim that “Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimize civilian harm.”

The echoing of Israel’s pretext for the carnage by the White House was aimed at “the US covering for its own complicity in this massacre,” according to journalist Mohammad Alsaafin.

“You don’t target ‘senior Hamas officials’ by waiting until ordinary people gather in a prayer space to pray together, and then bomb that specific part of the school,” Alsaafin added.

In any case, the US has given multiple signals in recent days reinforcing Israel’s perception that there are no red lines when it comes to its campaign of annihilation in Gaza.

Al-Ahli hospital overwhelmed with casualties

Fadel Naim, director of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, said that the facility “received dozens of bodies … others with amputations and severe burns and piles of shattered flesh and bones from those who could not be identified” following the use of “precision” weapons against the school.

In October, the hospital was the scene of a massacre similar to that which occurred at Tabaeen school on Saturday. Israel blamed the October strike on a misfired rocket from Islamic Jihad, which denied responsibility.

Independent investigations conducted remotely have challenged Israel’s claims regarding the al-Ahli hospital massacre.

Israel has denied international investigators and reporters access to Gaza for the duration of its offensive, now in its eleventh month, and its military has killed around 170 Palestinian journalists in the territory during that time.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that at least 39,790 people had been killed and 92,000 injured in the territory since early October.

An additional 10,000 people remain missing under the rubble or their bodies not yet recovered from the streets or inaccessible areas.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimates that at least an additional 51,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s siege on Gaza and its deliberate collapse of the medical sector in the territory, as well as the widespread destruction of infrastructure and mass displacement of civilians, leading to the spread of disease.

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