'This is not life': Gazans reel from Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter
Young children wandered through the charred shell of what had been a school sheltering displaced Palestinians on Thursday, after a pre-dawn Israeli strike killed 15 people there according to the civil defence agency.
Tattered clothes hung from the blackened exterior of the building in western Gaza City, as rubble still smouldered below in the morning light.
Bloodstains dotted the ground strewn with the remnants of daily life. Clothing, metal chairs, tins of food and part of an electric fan lay amongst the wreckage, AFP footage showed.
"This is not a life," said Umm Yassin Abu Awda, a Gaza City resident who stood amongst mourners at the city's Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike.
"Either you strike us with a nuclear bomb and end it all, or people's conscience needs to finally wake up."
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it "struck a key Hamas terrorist who was operating in a Hamas command and control center in Gaza City".
"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians," it added.
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP that most of the 15 killed in Thursday's strike were women and children.
He also reported a large number of injuries in the "Israeli air strike on the Mustafa Hafez School, which shelters displaced persons, in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood".
They were among 69 people that the agency reported killed by Israeli forces on Thursday in the Palestinian territory, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.
Nearly all of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the nearly 21-month war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people living there.
Many have sought shelter in school buildings, but these have repeatedly come under Israeli attacks that the military often says target Hamas militants hiding among civilians.
- 'Annihilate us' -
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence.
At Mustafa Hafez School, a colourful mural on a wall next to the wreckage showed a smiling boy walking past a tree and a woman next to a Palestinian flag.
A small group sat on chairs in what was once the playground of the school.
Inside the building, a group of young boys surveyed the damage and climbed on upturned furniture while others sifted through the debris.
Crowds of mourners gathered at Al-Shifa Hospital, where men and women wept over the bodies of the dead.
"We have no life left. Let them just annihilate us so we can finally rest," said one woman who lost relatives in the strike and did not give her name.
"There's nothing left for us. My two daughters are gone -- and now my niece, along with her six children and her husband, were burned to death," she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
At least 57,130 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
The war was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
