22 killed in Israeli strike on school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestine

At least 22 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a school housing displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

"The Israeli occupation army has committed a new massacre by bombing the Mufti School for displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp, resulting in 22 martyrs, including 15 children and a woman, and 80 injuries," the government media office in Gaza said in a statement.

It added that the Israeli army "was aware that the Mufti School housed thousands of displaced children and women who had been uprooted from their homes and whose neighborhoods had been bombed."

The attack brought the total number of shelters and displacement centers bombed by the Israeli army since Oct. 7, 2023 to 191, said the Gaza-based office.

It called on the international community and UN organizations to "pressure the occupation to stop the genocide and the ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip."

Throughout its ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip, Israel has consistently targeted civilian facilities, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship, acts which may constitute war crimes.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

More than 42,200 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 98,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul