Two floors of the Al-Tabi’een Koranic school and the adjacent mosque were targeted, killing 93 people, including eleven children and six women, said Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal, who arrived quickly at the scene while it was still dark.
Bodies covered in blood
On a completely destroyed floor, bodies covered in blood and human remains are scattered on the ground, men carry bodies in a blanket, others use their mobile phones to light their way through the debris, some take in their hands burnt or damaged books including copies of the Koran.
The identification work is expected to be difficult. “Rescue teams are not able to reconstruct an entire body from human remains,” observes the Civil Defense spokesman, looking dejected.
Eyad FATHER/AFP
“There was no warning […]”Those inside the mosque were all killed. Even the floor above, where women and children were sleeping, was completely burned,” said Abu Wassim. “We were surprised by the scale of this massacre,” said another man present: “We saw bodies piled on top of each other, human remains torn to pieces.”
The identification work is expected to be difficult. “Rescue teams are not able to reconstruct a whole body from human remains,” observes the Civil Defense spokesman, looking dejected: “The scene is difficult and very catastrophic, it reminds us of the first days of the war in the Gaza Strip.”
It was launched by Israel on October 7 after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil the same day. The Israeli army said in a statement on Saturday that “according to Israeli intelligence, about 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including high-ranking commanders, were operating from the compound struck at the Al-Tabi’een school,” which the army said was used to “carry out terrorist attacks.”
“Everyone is a target”
For Tela’t al-Ghafry, a resident of the neighborhood where the bombed school is located, “everyone is a target, whether here or elsewhere” in the Gaza Strip. “What can these poor people do? This was their refuge, where can they go now?” asks the old man who lost his son and daughter-in-law, referring to the displaced people who were staying at the school.
“What can these poor people do? This was their refuge, where can they go now?” asks an old man who lost his son and daughter-in-law.
Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP
Of the 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, nearly all have been displaced at least once due to the evolution of fighting and bombardment since the war began, according to the United Nations. For Gazans, adds Umm Ahmad, herself a displaced person, “nowhere is safe” in the Gaza Strip.
