GAZA CITY: An Israeli air strike targeted a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Saturday, killing at least five people, including two children and a woman, Palestinian rescuers reported.
The attack on the Shuhada al-Zeitun school, which was housing thousands of displaced Palestinians, marks a grim addition to the already devastating impact of ongoing Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip.
According to Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the Gaza Strip’s civil defence agency, the Israeli strike hit the school with two missiles. “Five martyrs, including two children and a woman, were pulled from under the rubble,” Bassal said. Several others were reported injured in the attack.
The Shuhada al-Zeitun school was one of many facilities repurposed to provide shelter for those displaced by the ongoing Israeli bombardments. The attack is part of a broader pattern of Israeli strikes targeting schools-turned-shelters.
Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli air strike on a house elsewhere in Gaza City killed at least 11 people. Overnight strikes in other parts of the territory resulted in at least 10 additional deaths.
This incident follows a similar attack on Wednesday, when an Israeli strike on the Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, killed at least 18 people, including six staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
UN officials have expressed grave concern over the targeting of facilities used by civilians and humanitarian workers. The widespread destruction has left the majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents displaced, with many seeking refuge in school buildings and other makeshift shelters.
The Israeli military’s ongoing bombardment campaign, which began on October 7, has significantly impacted Gaza. According to the Gaza Strip’s health ministry, the death toll has surpassed 41,182, mostly women and children, with at least 64 deaths reported in the previous 48 hours. The ministry also reports that 95,280 people have been wounded since the start of the conflict.
Earlier, the UN chief Antonio Guterres had strongly condemned the Israeli attack on a school serving as a shelter in Gaza, killing around six staffers from the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, along with 12 others, including children and women.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Guterres has termed the continued lack of effective protection for Palestinians in Gaza during the current Israel war in the besieged enclave as “unconscionable”.
Spain hosted a high-level meeting on Friday with representatives from Muslim and European countries to discuss ending the Gaza conflict and advancing the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares emphasized the need for a clear timetable to implement the two-state solution as the only viable path to peace.
The meeting included participants from Norway, Slovenia, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, and members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza, which comprises Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkiye.
Israel was not invited to this meeting because it is not part of the contact group, but Albares indicated openness to future discussions involving Israel.
Albares highlighted a collective desire among attendees to transition from discussions to actionable steps, including the formal recognition of Palestine by the UN. Spain, Norway, and Ireland have already recognized a unified Palestinian state with the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and East Jerusalem as its capital. This recognition now extends to 146 of the 193 UN member states.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has consistently advocated for the two-state solution as the only sustainable path to peace. This approach was initially outlined in the 1991 Madrid Conference and the 1993-95 Oslo Accords but has stalled in recent years.
The urgency for a resolution has increased due to the prolonged conflict in Gaza and rising violence in the West Bank. The West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and subsequently annexed, remain central issues, compounded by expanding Jewish settlements and security concerns.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stressed that the meeting also addressed the need for Hamas’ demobilization and the normalization of relations between Israel and other states.
Earlier the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had strongly condemned the latest Israeli attack on a school serving as a shelter in Nuseirat on Wednesday, killing six staffers from the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, along with at least 12 others, including women and children.
