The Israeli occupation army bombed, at dawn on Saturday, a school housing displaced people in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in the center of Gaza City, which resulted in the martyrdom of 100 Palestinians and the injury of dozens of others.
The government media office in Gaza said in a statement that "the Israeli occupation army committed a massacre inside the Tabeen School in Gaza City, killing more than 100 martyrs and wounding dozens." It pointed out that "the occupation army directly bombed the displaced people while they were performing the dawn prayer, which is what rapidly increased the number of martyrs."
He continued: "Due to the horror of the massacre and the large number of martyrs, the medical crews, civil defense, relief and emergency teams have not been able to retrieve the bodies of all the martyrs so far (3:30 GMT)."
The Government Media Office expressed its strongest condemnation of this "horrific massacre committed by the occupation," calling on the international community and international and UN organizations to pressure Israel to "stop the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing against civilians and displaced persons in the Gaza Strip, and to stop the flow of blood in the Strip."
For his part, the spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, said in a statement that "after the Israeli bombing of the Tabeen School in Gaza City, the bodies of the citizens caught fire." He described the event as a "horrific massacre."
Eyewitnesses reported that the bombing targeted the displaced people in the school's prayer hall with three missiles directly, adding that the bodies of the martyrs were charred remains piled up in the prayer hall area and some of them were scattered in the school yard as a result of the intensity of the Israeli bombing.
In contrast, the occupation army admitted to bombing the school. In a statement on the "X" platform, army spokesman Avichay Adraee said, "Under the direction of the Military Intelligence Authority, the Shin Bet (General Security Service) and the Southern Command of the army, an aircraft attacked terrorists who worked in a military command headquarters located inside the Al-Tabi'in School (in Gaza City) that is used as a shelter for the city's residents."
Adraee claimed that Hamas elements used the school's headquarters to hide and promote various terrorist attacks against the occupation army and Israel.
By targeting Al-Tabi’een School, the number of schools housing displaced persons that were bombed by the Israeli occupation army in Gaza City in just one week has risen to 6 schools, leaving a large number of martyrs and wounded.
With American support, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 131,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and deadly famine.