Israel has been instructed by the US to be completely "transparent" on an airstrike that occurred on Thursday morning at a key Gaza school crowded with displaced people and is said to have killed at least 35 people.
Two missiles launched by a warplane struck classrooms on the upper level of the school in the Nuseirat urban refugee camp, local journalists informed the BBC. The government media office in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, refuted the Israeli military's allegation that it carried out a "precise" hit on a "Hamas compound" inside the school.
Just as the Israeli military released the identities of nine Hamas members it claimed to have killed, the US demanded that Israel publicly identify the other fighters. Although Israel often names the terrorists it hits with airstrikes, the US seldom presses it to do so.
According to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, the Israelis "told us there were 20 to 30 militants they were targeting [and] they're going to release the names of those they believe they’ve killed, those militants." "They have committed to provide that. We anticipate that they will provide that information as well as any further data that might clarify this situation."
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari named nine combatants from Islamic Jihad and Hamas he claimed to have been killed in the attack during a nearly simultaneous press conference. In order to "verify the information," he promised to identify more after work.
Mr. Miller said in Washington that reports indicating 14 children were killed in the hit had been reviewed by the US.
"If that is accurate that 14 children were killed, those aren’t terrorists," he said.
Therefore, the Israeli government has said that further details about this attack would be made public. We anticipate complete transparency from them when they provide that data to the public. The most recent fatalities occurred only one week after an Israeli attack in the Gazan city of Rafah claimed 45 lives.
According to local journalists and locals, the most recent strike occurred early on Thursday morning at al-Sardi school, which is located in a heavily populated, decades-old camp that is serviced by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa. Social media posts included footage of many classrooms in one of the school's buildings being destroyed, along with corpses covered in blankets and white shrouds.
The adjoining town of Deir al-Balah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital, overrun since the Israeli military launched a fresh ground offensive against Hamas in central Gaza this week, received a flood of dead and injured persons.
The BBC is investigating the specifics of the strike in the Nuseirat camp. Accounts have differed as to how many people have died. 40 people, including 14 children and 9 women, had been murdered, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, while 74 more had been wounded.
According to Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of Unrwa, at least 35 people had died and several more had been wounded. Juliette Touma, the agency's head of communications, told the BBC that Unrwa "colleagues on the ground" provided the data. Witnesses reported seeing utter destruction after the attack. A guy who lived at the school named Udai Abu Elias told BBC Arabic, "I was asleep when the incident occurred."
"Abruptly, there was a thunderous explosion, and glass shards and building rubble crashed on us. I was blinded by the smoke and could see nothing. I didn't think I would survive. Someone was yelling for survivors to emerge from the debris, and I heard them. I staggered over the martyrs' corpses, unable to see.
6,000 displaced persons, according to Unrwa, were taking up residence at the school complex at the time. The 1.7 million people who have left their homes throughout the almost eight-month-long conflict have taken refuge at several schools and other UN facilities. Through a spokeswoman, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the strike and said that during times of crisis, UN property must be "inviolable" and safeguarded by "all parties".
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced in a statement that they had carried out a "precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside" the school. Two higher levels of the building's classrooms were marked on an annotated aerial shot as the "locations of the terrorists," according to the IDF. US authorities have not stopped advocating for what President Joe Biden referred to be an Israeli plan for a ceasefire.
The Israeli military would evacuate populous areas of Gaza during the first six weeks of the three-part plan's ceasefire. In addition, there would be a "surge" in humanitarian relief and a hostage swap for Palestinian captives.
Eventually, the agreement would result in a long-term "cessation of hostilities" and a comprehensive plan for Gaza's rebuilding. In a joint statement with the US on Thursday, Germany, France, and the UK reiterated their support for the agreement and urged "an enduring end to the crisis".
CIA Director William Burns discussed the plans with mediators from Qatar and Egypt on Thursday in Doha, but senior sources in Cairo informed Reuters that no progress had been made on the agreement. The health ministry, which is managed by Hamas, claims that in over eight months of conflict, at least 36,470 people have died in Gaza. Around 1,200 people were murdered and 251 more were taken captive by Hamas during its operations in southern Israel on October 7.
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