Many killed, injured in Israeli strike on Gaza school

The Palestinian Red Crescent announced that at least 28 Palestinians were killed and 54 others were injured in an Israeli air raid that hit Rofaida school, sheltering the displaced, in the west of Deir al-Balah in the centre of Gaza.

The Israeli army claims it targeted Hamas operatives in the school, which the governmental media office in Gaza strongly denies.

Al-Aqsa Hospital officials say the vast majority of victims in the latest Israeli strike are women, children as well as young men.

The attack on Rofaida school is the most recent of a series of Israeli raids on schools housing thousands of displaced Gazans.

The Israeli military has hit dozens of schools sheltering civilians since the start of its war on the besieged enclave, predominantly killing children and women in the strikes. Many of the schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have also been damaged or destroyed.

Israel has continued its offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

More than 42,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 98,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.