What we know about the strikes on a Gaza school, which left more than 90 dead according to Palestinian emergency services

The Israeli army claims to have struck “a Hamas command and control center embedded” in the school. Qatar, which is playing a mediating role in the conflict, is calling for an “urgent international investigation.”

The strikes are among the deadliest since the start of the war. The Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, said on Saturday, August 10, that 93 people had died in Israeli strikes on a school in Gaza City on the night of Friday to Saturday.

For its part, the Israeli army denies this toll. and assures that the building served as a command center for “terrorists”. Franceinfo summarizes what we know about this attack.

Israeli strikes on school and mosque

The Civil Defense, which is coordinating relief efforts in Gaza, reported several strikes that “targeted two floors of the al-Tabi’een Quranic school and the mosque [adjacente] with three missiles.” Located in the center of Gaza City, the school served as a shelter for about 250 displaced people, the majority of them women and children, according to Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, quoted by The Guardian.

The Israeli army is pleased to have “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating in an integrated Hamas command and control center” in this school. “According to Israeli intelligence, about 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including high-ranking commanders, were operating from the compound hit at al-Tabi’een school.”she assured on the social network X.

More than 90 people have died, according to emergency services

The Gaza Civil Defense assures that the strikes caused the death of “93 people, including 11 children and six women”. “Dozens of people have been injured, some of whom are in intensive care, and there are many unidentified body parts and missing people.”she added.

The toll was denied by the Israeli army, which nevertheless did not give a number of victims. The figure given by Hamasunverifiable from an independent source, is one of the most important since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7 by the terrorist attack of the Islamist movement on Israeli soil.

Hamas denounces “a dangerous escalation”

“The massacre at al-Tabi’een school in central Gaza City is a horrific crime that represents a dangerous escalation”Hamas said, denying that the school was being used as a command center. The strike, carried out at dawn, “targeted a crowded school, where displaced people were present, during morning prayers”according to the Islamist movement.

Egypt also strongly condemned the attack, which it said was evidence of a “unprecedented contempt” of international law. The UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Italy’s Francesca Albanese, accused Israel of “genocide” Palestinians, on X. Qatar has demanded “the dispatch of independent UN investigators to investigate the continued targeting by Israeli occupation forces of schools and shelters for displaced persons”.

The strikes come as Israel agreed on Friday to resume talks on a truce in the Gaza Strip on August 15, following a pressing appeal from mediating countries over the risk of a flare-up in the region.