(MENAFN) On Sunday, Gaza health officials reported that an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people, including a woman and a girl. Several others were injured in the strike, which hit the Safad school in Gaza City. The school had been serving as a refuge for those displaced by the ongoing conflict and also housed a Hamas police outpost, according to an anonymous Gaza health official.

In response, the Israeli military asserted that the airstrike targeted a Hamas command center located within the Safad school. The military maintained that the strike was aimed at a command and control center used by Hamas terrorists, embedded within the area of the former school. This justification was part of Israel's broader strategy of targeting alleged military infrastructure amid the conflict.

The hostilities between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7, following an attack by Palestinian militants on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 individuals, predominantly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli sources. Since then, Israel has intensified its military operations, conducting relentless bombing campaigns across the Gaza Strip.

As a result, Gaza's health ministry reports that at least 40,738 people have been killed, with the majority being women and children, according to the United Nations. The ongoing violence continues to devastate the region, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and drawing widespread international concern.

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