Charred remains and bodies.. More than 100 martyrs in the horrific dawn massacre in Gaza

The number of victims of the Al-Tabi'in School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood (central Gaza City) rose at dawn today, Saturday, to more than 100 martyrs and dozens of wounded and missing, in one of the largest massacres witnessed by the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

The government media office in Gaza reported that the Israeli bombing of the Tabeen School resulted in a massacre that claimed the lives of more than 100 martyrs and dozens of injuries.

The office added, in a statement, that the occupation army directly bombed the displaced people while they were performing the dawn prayer, which increased the number of martyrs rapidly, while eyewitnesses stated that the bombing began immediately after the opening takbeer.

The media office indicated that due to the horror of the massacre and the large number of martyrs, the medical crews, civil defense, relief and emergency teams have not been able to recover the bodies of all the martyrs so far.

6 thousand pounds of explosives

The Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, Ismail Al-Thawabta, said that the Israeli occupation bombed a school housing displaced people with three missiles, each weighing two thousand pounds of explosives.

He stressed that the occupation army knew that there were displaced people inside the school, and that the Israeli army's account of what happened is full of lies and false information, and that it seeks through its false statements to justify its crimes against our people, adding: We find it extremely difficult to transfer the bodies of the martyrs and the severed parts of the wounded.

For his part, the spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, said that the Israeli occupation bombed the Al-Tabi’in School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood with 3 missiles in a massacre against displaced people who were performing the dawn prayer in the school.

He added that the bombing led to the martyrdom of nearly 90% of those who were performing the prayer, and that most of the injuries were very serious. He explained that the occupation targeted two floors of the school, the first of which housed women and the ground floor was a prayer room for the displaced.

He pointed out that the occupation has targeted 13 centers for sheltering the displaced since the beginning of this month, and called on the world to intervene immediately to stop the massacres against defenseless civilians in the shelters.

Scattered bodies and shock among the residents

Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, Anas Al Sharif, said that the bodies of the martyrs were burned and scattered into charred pieces that were piled up in the prayer area, and some of them were scattered in the school yard, due to the force of the bombing that targeted them while they were performing the dawn prayer.

He said that the toll mentioned in the official statements is a preliminary toll, and that the real number of martyrs will be more than what has been announced so far.

He stated that the conditions are catastrophic in the Arab National Hospital, to which the wounded and injured were transferred, as there are no beds for the patients, and the medical teams are unable to provide the necessary medical assistance to many of them, due to the lack of equipment, supplies, medicines and treatments, as a result of the targeting, siege and continuous destruction that the health sector and others in the Gaza Strip have been subjected to since the beginning of the aggression on October 7.

In addition, the correspondent conveyed the state of shock and horrors suffered by the families as they watched the torn remains of their loved ones filling the place, while dozens of martyrs have not yet been shrouded, due to the depletion of shrouds, which have become one of the essential supplies that the Gazans desperately need due to the unstoppable numbers of dead in Gaza.

Israel recognizes

The Israeli army admitted to bombing the Tabeen School, which was sheltering - according to Al Jazeera's correspondent - about two thousand displaced persons, and was supposed to be a safe haven for them after they left their homes and residences.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement on the X platform that under the direction of the Military Intelligence Service, the Shin Bet (General Security Service) and the Southern Command of the army, an aircraft attacked what he described as "terrorists" who were operating in a military command headquarters that was located inside the Al-Tabi'in School (in Gaza City) that is being used as a shelter for the city's residents.

Adraee claimed that Hamas elements used the school's headquarters to hide and promote various terrorist attacks against IDF forces and Israel.

Feedback

In response, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the deliberate killing of Palestinians is conclusive evidence of Israel's lack of political will to end the war.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also said that it condemns in the strongest terms Israel's bombing of the Tabeen School, which houses displaced persons in the Daraj neighborhood in the Gaza Strip, considering that Israel's bombing of the school represents a flagrant violation of the rules of international law and a systematic targeting of civilians.

For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said that the massacre at the Tabeen School represents a “horrific crime and a dangerous escalation in the series of crimes committed in Gaza by neo-Nazis,” and that it also represents “a clear confirmation by the Zionist government of its continuation of the war of extermination against our Palestinian people.”

Hamas added that "the occupation army is fabricating flimsy pretexts and blatant lies to target civilians, schools and hospitals," stressing that "the escalation of Zionist crime in the Gaza Strip would not have continued without American support, which makes Washington a partner in it," according to the movement's statement.

She called on the Arab and Islamic countries and the international community to assume their responsibilities and take urgent action to stop these massacres and the escalating Zionist aggression against the defenceless Palestinians.

As for the Resistance Committees in Palestine, they said that “the killing of the displaced people in the Al-Tabi’een School was carried out with American weapons that were sent to the Zionist army,” and called on the sons of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the occupied interior to mobilize and escalate the revolution and resistance.

In turn, the Islamic Jihad Movement said that the Israeli occupation forces' targeting of displaced worshippers in the prayer hall of Al-Tabi'in School in Al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza is a full-fledged war crime.

She added that the pretexts used by the occupation army to destroy schools are the same ones it used to destroy hospitals before, and these were proven to be false, stressing that the failure of international institutions and courts to declare the occupation leaders war criminals contributed to their persistence.

With the targeting of Al-Tabi’in School, the number of schools housing displaced persons that were bombed by the Israeli army in Gaza City in just one week has risen to 6 schools, leaving a large number of dead and wounded.

On Thursday, 15 Palestinians were killed and dozens were injured, including children, when Israeli warplanes targeted Al-Zahraa and Abdul Fattah Hamoud schools, which house displaced people in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense Authority in the Gaza Strip.

On August 4, the Palestinian Civil Defense Authority in the Gaza Strip announced in a statement that 30 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured - 80% of them children - in an Israeli bombardment that targeted Al-Nasr and Hassan Salama schools in Al-Nasr neighborhood (west of Gaza City).

On August 3, 16 Palestinians were killed and others were injured in an Israeli bombardment that targeted Hamama School, which houses displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of the city, according to the Civil Defense in Gaza.

With American support, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 131,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and deadly famine.

In contempt of the international community, Tel Aviv continues the war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to stop it immediately, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Source: Al Jazeera + Agencies