Israeli strike kills at least 33 people at a Gaza school the military claims was being used by Hamas (2024)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials.

The Israeli military claimed Hamas militants operated from within the school.

Meanwhile, Spain became the first European country to ask a U.N. court for permission to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice late last year. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza.

The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Israel has not complied and shows no sign of doing so.

Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians are waiting for the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to grant approval to their requests to join the case.

Thursday's attack was the latest instance of mass casualties among Palestinians trying to find refuge as Israel expands its offensive. A day earlier, the military announced a new ground and air assault in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants it says regrouped there.

Troops repeatedly swept back into parts of the Gaza Strip they previously invaded, underscoring the resilience of the militant group despite Israel's nearly eight-month onslaught.

Witnesses and hospital officials said the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees known by the acronym UNRWA. The school was filled with Palestinians who fled Israeli operations and bombardment in northern Gaza, they said.

The hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among those killed in the strike on the school. The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men.

It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy. An Associated Press reporter had counted the bodies but was unable to look beneath the shrouds.

Separate strikes in central Gaza killed another 15 people, nearly all men.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the Israeli military, said it carried out a "precise strike" based on intelligence that militants were planning and conducting attacks from inside three classrooms. He said only those rooms were attacked.

"We conducted the strike once our intelligence and surveillance indicated that there were no women or children inside the Hamas compound, inside those classrooms," he said.

Hagari said there were about 30 suspected militants in the three rooms. He said the military confirmed killing nine of them, and displayed a slide showing their names and photos. He provided no evidence to substantiate the military's claims.

Casualties from the strike arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, which already was overwhelmed by a stream of constant ambulances since the central Gaza incursion began 24 hours earlier, said Omar al-Derawi, a photographer working for the hospital.

Videos circulating online appeared to show several wounded people being treated on the floor of the hospital, a common scene in Gaza's overwhelmed medical wards. Electricity in much of the hospital is out because staff are rationing fuel supplies for the generator.

"You can't walk in the hospital — there's so many people. Women from the victims' families are massed in the hallways, crying," he said.

The school was in Nuseirat, one of several built-up refugee camps in Gaza dating to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became the new state.

UNRWA schools across Gaza have functioned as shelters since the start of the war, which has driven most of the territory's population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes.

Last week, Israeli strikes hit near an UNRWA facility in the southern city of Rafah, claiming they were targeting Hamas militants.

An inferno ripped through tents nearby housing displaced families, killing at least 45 people. The deaths triggered international outrage, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a "tragic mishap."

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. Israel's offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.

The U.S. threw its weight behind a phased cease-fire and hostage release outlined by President Joe Biden last week. However, Israel says it won't end the war without destroying Hamas, while the militant group demands a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Far-right members of Netanyahu's government threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs on to a cease-fire deal.

Netanyahu is set to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, congressional leaders confirmed late Thursday after formally inviting him. It is expected to be a contentious speech at a crucial moment for the war.