Israeli strike on school kills five: Gaza rescuers

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: An Israeli air strike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Saturday, with Palestinian rescuers reporting five dead and the Israeli military saying it had targeted Hamas militants.

Thousands of Palestinians displaced by the war, now in its 12th month, have sought shelter in the Shuhada al-Zeitun school, said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency in the Gaza Strip.

It was the latest school building housing displaced Gazans to be hit by an Israeli air strike, resulting in “five martyrs, including two children and a woman”, Bassal told AFP, adding that several other people were wounded.

AFP could not independently verify the toll.

Bassal said the bodies “were pulled from under the rubble after Israeli warplanes hit the Shuhada al-Zeitun school with two missiles”.

The Israeli military said it carried out a “precise strike” on the school compound which “was used by Hamas terrorists”.

Earlier on Saturday, the civil defence agency reported an Israeli air strike on a house elsewhere in Gaza City had killed at least 11 people, with more strikes overnight in other parts of the Hamas-run territory leaving at least 10 dead.

The Israeli military has targeted several schools-turned-shelters in recent months, accusing Hamas of using them to hide militants among the civilian population -- a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.

A similar strike on Wednesday on the Al-Jawni school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat killed at least 18 people, according to the civil defence agency. “One colleague said that they’re not wearing the UNRWA vest anymore because they feel that that turns them into a target,” UNRWA senior deputy director Sam Rose told AFP on Saturday after visiting the shelter in Nuseirat.