![Representational image. People gather outside the remains of Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest health facility. Photo: WHO](https://mc-webpcache.readwhere.in/mcms.php?size=medium&in=https://mcmscache.epapr.in/post_images/website_350/post_44129911/full.jpg)
Authorities in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a Gaza City school being used as a shelter for displaced people killed scores early on Saturday.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported between 90 and 100 dead, and Gaza civil defence spokesman (Palestine civil defence) Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency that the death toll was between 90 and 100.>
The civil defence agency spoke of a “horrific massacre” and said some bodies caught fire.
Bassal said three Israeli rockets hit the facility in Daraj in eastern Gaza City.>
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), meanwhile, said it had struck “terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control center embedded within” a school.
The IDF accused Hamas of “systematically” using civilians “as a human shield for terrorist activity.” It also claimed that it had taken several steps to try to limit the possibility of civilian casualties.>
Death toll likely to rise>
The tally of people killed in three Israeli airstrikes on the school in Gaza City may well rise, with several still unaccounted for, according to DW correspondent Rebecca Ritters.>
“It certainly looks as though the death toll may rise, as there are many people reportedly trapped under the rubble,” she said.
The death toll given by Hamas authorities so far stands at 90-100 people.>
Ritters said claims by Israel to have taken steps to avoid civilian casualties with a precise attack stood in contrast to the images emerging in the aftermath of the strikes.>
She said the justification used by the Israeli military for such strikes on schools and hospitals – that such sites were being used as command centers by militants or to launch attacks on Israel – was “more often than not” supported by “very little evidence,” adding that it was very difficult to verify the claims amid the ongoing conflict.>
Conflicting claims by Israel and Hamas
Israel has said its strike on a Gaza school has killed Palestinian militants after Palestinian media reported that between 90 and 100 people who were sheltering there had been killed.>
“Based on Israeli intelligence, approx. 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including senior commanders, were operating from the compound struck at the Al-Tabaeen school, using it to carry out terrorist attacks,” IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said on X, formerly Twitter.>
“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” he added.
No evidence was provided and the claim could not be independently verified.>