Israeli airstrikes kill 23 in Gaza City school that houses displaced families, local officials say
ICU, solar power damaged in separate Israeli strike on children's hospital
An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 23 people, while another hit a children's hospital, local health officials said.
Medics said the airstrike on the Yaffa School in the Tuffah area of Gaza City set fire to tents and classrooms.
Some furniture was still in flames several hours after the strike as people sifted through blackened classrooms and the schoolyard in search of their belongings.
Sally Al-Kafarna said she began to run with her three daughters after hearing they needed to clear the school, but she didn't know where to turn after the strikes set much of the school ablaze.
"My daughter's blood was coming out. And my other daughter is wounded in her foot," Al-Kafarna told CBC News on Wednesday.
Al-Kafarna said when she looked over at her neighbour's tent, she saw it bursting with flames.
"They burned and died. They were gone, the children were sleeping.... What are they to blame for? Why do they deserve to be burned like that?" she said.
Ahmed Basal said his cousins — three children between the ages of one and four — all died in the airstrike on the school.
"We found them completely charred," he told CBC News. "It wasn't just a room or a classroom; they bombed the entire school."
The Israeli military said Hamas and allied group Islamic Jihad were operating within the school and that it took precautions to reduce harm to civilians before it struck there. It did not provide any evidence.
ICU unit, solar power damaged at children's hospital
Medics said at least 10 other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes across the enclave.
Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.
On Wednesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli missile also hit the upper building of the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar panel system that feeds the facility with power. No one was killed in the hospital strike.
Gaza's health-care system is close to collapse due to an Israeli blockade on all supplies to Gaza, including fuel and electricity, since the beginning of March, when it relaunched military operations.
It says the blockade is aimed at pressuring the Hamas militants who run Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 2023 attacks that precipitated the war. Hamas says it is prepared to free them but only as part of a deal that ends the war.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain jointly called on Israel to adhere to international law and allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
They also called for the ceasefire to be restored and for remaining hostages held by Hamas to be released.
"Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change," the ministers said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein rejected the statement, asserting that there was no shortage of aid in Gaza — even though doctors and civilians say that medical supplies and food are running low.
The Health Ministry said many Palestinian victims of Israeli military strikes remained trapped under rubble and on the roads, as rescue teams are unable to reach them because of ongoing bombardments. The attacks have also hit dozens of bulldozers and machinery used to clear roads, remove debris and carry out rescue operations.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had hit 40 "engineering vehicles" that were used for "terrorist actions," including Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Bodies remain under rubble, man says
Some of those heavy vehicles were parked on the road and others inside the garages of municipalities.
"For a year now, some people have still not been retrieved from under the rubble," said Nasser Mohammed Nasser, a resident of Gaza who was standing close to the mangled skeletons of destroyed bulldozers and trucks in the northern town of Jabalia.
Even before Tuesday's Israeli attack, Palestinians had complained they were short of heavy machinery, accusing Israel of refusing to allow the equipment into Gaza in violation of the January ceasefire deal.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251, according to Israeli records. Most of the hostages have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed about 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
With files from CBC's Mohamed El Saife and Sara Jabakhanji, The Associated Press