The Israeli Defense Forces struck a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in northern Gaza, killing 37 people, according to a Gaza hospital.
The school was part of the Nuseirat refugee camp and, like many UN schools, was used by Hamas to harbor terrorists. This particular school compound also sheltered displaced civilians from the refugee camp.
The IDF says that from 30-40 Hamas fighters were in three classrooms of the school. The fighters belonged to the notorious and elite Nukhba force who took part in the October 7 massacre in Israel.
The army said that Hamas along with the Islamic Jihad terrorist group “directed terror attacks from the area of the school, while exploiting it as a civilian location and as shelter.”
“The strike eliminated terrorists who had planned to carry out terror attacks and advance imminent terror schemes against our forces,” the IDF said, adding that “many steps were taken before the strike to minimize the risk of harm to uninvolved people” — including analyzing aerial footage and using precise intelligence."
The IDF postponed the attack twice. They fine-tuned their targets and gathered additional intelligence to make sure that civilian casualties were kept to a minimum.
With 30-40 suspected terrorists in the school and the death toll at 37 total, it would appear that the IDF was successful in keeping civilian casualties to a minimum. So far, the military has identified nine dead terrorists in the strike and is still working to identify others.
Of course, this is Hamas, and the media is swallowing the story of "dozens" of civilian casualties.
"Local health officials said at least 30 people had been killed, including 23 women and children, and dozens injured," according to The Associated Press.
An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said that the army wasn’t aware of any civilian casualties in the strike. He said that intelligence indicated that militants had used the school compound to orchestrate some of the attacks on Oct. 7 and that at least 20 militants there were using it currently as a “staging realm” to launch attacks on Israeli soldiers. The military gave no evidence for its claims and released a photo of the school, pointing to classrooms on the second and third floor where it claimed militants were located.
So AP is demanding "proof" from the IDF but not from Hamas? Sheesh
Israel has long alleged that Hamas embeds itself in schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure where civilians have taken shelter from the fighting, using them as bases for terror activity.
Hamas condemned the strike as a "horrific massacre."
The Hamas-affiliated Quds News Network published footage online that it said showed bodies being removed "in the massacre committed by the occupation after the bombing of the Al-Sardi School, which houses displaced persons, in the Nuseirat camp."
The history of Hamas using the UNRWA schools as terrorist shelters is undeniable. The IDF gave proof that 12 teachers at the schools took part in the October 7 attack in Israel. There have been other instances of the IDF finding weapons stashes and training facilities at the schools.
It's no surprise that a school would house terrorists. Nor is it a surprise that Hamas would invite a strike to kill civilians.
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