Israeli airstrike hits Al-Awda school in Gaza, killing more than 20
Israel says the strike was targeting Hamas fighters near the Al-Awda school
It was a chaotic scene outside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Tuesday, as cars rushed by transporting the dead and wounded from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al-Awda school, once a place of refuge for Palestinian families in Gaza.
The screams of survivors pierced through the chaos. People carried the injured — children and adults alike — from cars into the overcrowded hospital.
"Arab leaders are watching us," Abdullah Abu Daqqa told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife from the scene. "What more do they want?"
More than 20 Palestinians were killed in one of a series of strikes this week, according to hospital officials. Hospital spokesperson Weam Fares said the dead included at least seven women and children, and that the toll is likely to rise.
An Associated Press reporter also counted 25 bodies at the hospital.
The school, located in the eastern part of Khan Younis, has become a shelter for displaced people during the war. As the fighting in the north intensified this week, families came to it in search of refuge.
Atef Abu Daqqa helped carry victims into the hospital.
"They targeted children and women and men," he said. "There are no fighters [there]."
The Israeli army said the airstrike near the school and reports of civilian casualties were under review, and claimed the strike targeted a Hamas militant who took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The Israel Defence Forces blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, urban areas, but the army rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
Abu Daqqa said it wasn't fair that civilians were caught in the crossfire of the war.
"People who were buying food and water," he said. "People who were sitting outside.... They strike them?"
In a post to its Telegram channel on Tuesday, Hamas called the strike a "massacre" and called for protests worldwide to condemn the attack. The group went on to call on Arab people to take to the streets "immediately" in protest.
Ceasefire talks continued this week with representatives from Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the United States hoping to reach a deal that would see the end of the Israel-Hamas war.
In another Telegram post on Thursday, Hamas claimed Israel was continuing a policy of "procrastination" that could lead to a breakdown of this round of talks.
Israel began its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip after Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which killed some 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. The subsequent ground offensive in Gaza has killed some 38,000 people, based on numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry.
At Nasser, Palestinians continued bringing in their injured and deceased on makeshift stretchers on Tuesday, limbs swinging over the edges as people rushed to seek help.
In another part of the hospital courtyard, white shrouds laid neatly in a row. The silence hung heavy in the air as families and friends bid their final farewells to their loved ones lost in the war.
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With files from Mohamed El Saife and The Associated Press