More Than 20 Killed and Wounded, Including Women and Children, in Israeli Attack on Shelter in Gaza

Photo: Anadolu/Getty Images

In continuation of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, an airstrike on Thursday (3 July) targeted a school in Gaza City that was sheltering Palestinian, resulting in the death of at least 12 people. According to the Gaza Civil Defense Agency, most of the victims of this attack were women and children.

According to a report by France 24, quoting Mohammad Al-Mughair, the Civil Defense official in Gaza City, the attack targeted the Mustafa Hafiz School in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, a place where hundreds of families displaced by the ongoing war had taken refuge.

In total, the number of casualties from Thursday’s Israeli attacks across Gaza has reached 25 people. In another attack, Israeli forces fired on an area distributing humanitarian aid in central Gaza, which, according to local officials, resulted in six deaths and many injuries.

On the same day, three people died in Beit Lahia due to artillery shelling, one person in Jabalia, and three others in a refugee camp in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi. This is while Israel had previously declared Al-Mawasi a “safe zone” in December 2023, yet repeated attacks on this area continue.

Palestinian women are once again among the primary victims of these attacks. “Umm Yaseen Abu Odeh,” a Gaza resident who had lost relatives and was present at Al-Shifa hospital after the attack, told AFP with tearful eyes, “This is no longer life. We cannot endure anymore… we have been fighting for a piece of bread for two years.”

Israel has not yet issued an official statement regarding these attacks, but its army told AFP in response to questions that it is acting to “destroy Hamas’s military capabilities” and claims to be “acting in accordance with international law.”

These attacks come as Donald Trump, the President of the United States, announced that Israel has agreed to a proposed 60-day ceasefire plan in Gaza. The plan aims to temporarily halt the war, facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, and begin indirect talks to return the hostages.

It is worth mentioning that since the beginning of the war in October 2023, more than 57,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians including women and children, have lost their lives due to Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.