An Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City early Saturday, killing at least 80 people, Palestinian health authorities said, in one of the deadliest strikes in the 10-month-old war on Gaza. Gaza’s Government Media Office, however, said more than 100 people have been killed.
The Israeli military acknowledged the strike, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school. Hamas denied that.
Al-Tabin school, like almost all of Gaza's schools, has been used as a shelter for people who have been forced to flee their homes by the war.
Video from the scene showed walls blown out on the ground level of a large building. Concrete chunks and twisted metal lay atop the blood-soaked floor, along with clothing, toppled furniture and other debris. A blackened car with the windows blown out was covered in rubble.
Gaza’s Government Media Office Statement:
“The Israeli occupation army commits a massacre inside the al-Tabin School in Gaza City, which claimed the lives of more than 100 martyrs and dozens of injuries. This clearly comes within the framework of the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinian people.
The occupation army directly bombed the displaced people while they were performing the dawn prayer, and this caused the number of martyrs to rise rapidly.
Due to the horror of the massacre and the large number of martyrs, medical teams, civil defence, and relief and emergency teams have not been able to recover the bodies of all the martyrs so far.
We condemn in the strongest terms the occupation’s perpetration of this horrific massacre, and we call on the whole world to condemn it. We hold the Israeli occupation and the American administration fully responsible for this massacre.
We call on the international community and international organisations to put pressure on the occupation to stop the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing against civilians and displaced persons in the Gaza Strip and to stop the cascade of blood flowing in the Gaza Strip.”
(Source: Al Jazeera)
Frustrated Mediators Call On Israel, Hamas To Resume Gaza Talks
Leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar jointly demanded Israel and Hamas return to stalled talks on the war in Gaza next week, saying that “only the details” of carrying out a cease-fire and hostage release remain to be negotiated. “There is no further time to waste, nor excuses from any party for further delay,” they said in a joint statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday, “Pursuant to the proposal by the US and the mediators, Israel will — on 15 August — send the negotiations team to a place to be determined in order to finalise the details of the implementation of the framework agreement.”
US officials have said they believe Hamas can resume negotiations despite the July 31 assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, who had been presiding over the talks for Hamas.
(With AP Inputs)
