15 children, 8 women among at least 30 killed in Israeli strike on school

Israeli military says it struck a Hamas command centre in school complex

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At least 30 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a school that had been housing displaced people in Gaza on July 27, Palestinian health officials said, while Israel’s military said it had struck a Hamas command centre in the school complex.

Fifteen children and eight women were among those killed in the strike on the school in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, the Hamas-run government media office said.

The media office and the Gaza Health Ministry said more than 100 people were wounded.

The Israeli military said in a statement it had targeted a “Hamas command and control centre inside the Khadija school compound in central Gaza”. The statement said the school was being used to launch attacks against troops and as a weapons cache and that it warned civilians before the strike.

At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, ambulances raced wounded Palestinians into the medical facility. Some of the wounded also arrived on foot, with their clothes stained with blood.

Reuters footage showed people returning to the site of the bombing to check on their belongings, and fires burning in the area. Walls were blasted and debris scattered in the schoolyard, where some cars were damaged.