Israel Blames Casualties in Attack in Gaza on Enemy’s Strategy of Placing Command Centers in Schools and Civilian Structures
Hamas claims at least 80 persons perished in school that was hit by an Israel missile.
Israel’s military authorities, acknowledging that one of its air strikes today hit a school at Gaza City, blamed the civilian casualties on the enemy’s strategy of placing command centers within civilian structures.
Israeli intelligence indicated about 20 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including senior commanders, were using the Tabeen school compound to plan attacks on Israeli forces, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said in a statement on X. A top official of Hamas, Izzat al-Rishq, denied that claim.
Health authorities controlled by Hamas in Gaza put the number of persons killed in the strike at 80 or more, which would make it one of the deadliest strikes in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas. However, Hamas death counts have proved to be unreliable, and it is likely to be some time before an estimate of the toll is reached by Israel.
“There’s no justification for these massacres,” the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, a critic of Israel, said in a statement posted on X, in reference to the strikes on schools. The UN said that as of July 6, some 477 out of 564 schools in Gaza had been directly hit or damaged in the war. Israel, in blaming such civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, argues that the group endangers noncombatants by using schools and residential neighborhoods as bases for operations and attacks.
The strike came as American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for the two parties to achieve a cease-fire agreement that could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of the top Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
Egypt, which borders Gaza and serves as a key mediator, said the strike on the school showed Israel had no intention of reaching a cease-fire deal and ending the war. Neighboring Jordan condemned the attack as a “blatant violation” of international law. Qatar demanded an international investigation, calling it a “heinous crime” against civilians.
