Israeli Strike Kills Dozens at Gaza City Shelter, Officials Say

Dozens of people were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, according to local health authorities.

The deadly strike took place as Israel was ramping up its offensive in the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to release more hostages being held in its captivity.

The Israeli military said that it was looking into reports about the incident and could not immediately provide a comment.

The bodies of 27 people killed in the strike arrived at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, the health ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its casualty counts.

Multiple videos verified by The New York Times show an explosion and its chaotic aftermath at the Dar al-Arqam school in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, where civilians were sheltering. In the videos, people can be seen carrying victims, including children, to ambulances as fires burn in the background.

A video filmed by Anas al-Sharif, a reporter for Al Jazeera, shows more than a dozen wounded children at the Ahli Arab hospital, including some covered in dust.

Israel has accused Hamas of embedding its forces in civilian spaces, including schools and hospitals.

Mohammed al-Najjar, 32, had been sheltering at the school when a series of airstrikes pounded into the building, he said.

“We were surprised when the school was bombed,” he said in a voice message, adding that a second round of airstrikes was carried out later.

On Wednesday, Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli military, called on residents of the Tuffah neighborhood to evacuate the area.

While many people have complied with such evacuation orders from the military during the most recent Israeli campaign, others have chosen to stay in their homes or shelters, saying they can’t bear being displaced — many of them have already been uprooted several times during the war — or that they have nowhere else to go.

A two-month-old cease-fire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in mid-March after the two sides failed to reach an agreement to extend it. The Israeli military has since embarked on a major bombing campaign throughout Gaza that Israeli officials have said was meant to compel Hamas to release more hostages.

More than 1,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the collapse of the cease-fire on Mar. 18, according to the Gaza health ministry.