Israeli airstrike kills dozens of displaced civilians in Gaza

The strike around dawn Saturday triggered a wave of criticism from Arab governments and threatened to complicate a U.S.-led effort to restart moribund talks toward a cease-fire next week.

Israel’s military said the school and nearby mosque were used by Hamas as a command and control center, and that its intelligence showed 20 militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad were killed in the strike, including senior commanders.

Residents said the Taba’een school in the neighborhood of Daraj in eastern Gaza City, which included a mosque and playground in its compound, was also being used as housing by Palestinians who had few places to go after being displaced from their homes by the fighting. The neighborhood was one of the last undestroyed areas of Gaza City.

Amro Selim, 22, who lives next door to the school, said he woke up to the sound of an explosion early Saturday morning and went to help with the rescue efforts.

“The mosque and the first floor were targeted," he said. “I saw dead bodies over each other, body parts everywhere. A lot of them were children and women."

Selim said a fire broke out on the first floor, which had been reserved as a shelter for women. “We started to bring water trying to extinguish the fire, but a lot of women were burnt dead already," he said.

Hamas said the strike occurred during dawn prayers. A video of the aftermath verified by Storyful, owned by Wall Street Journal parent News Corp, showed bodies of bloodied victims strewn among the rubble of a building and first responders attempting to reach the injured and dead.

Israel’s military said it took steps to mitigate harm to civilians before the strike including “the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information." The military said it used three munitions for the strike and blamed Hamas for embedding itself in civilian infrastructure.

Dr. Fadel Naim, the head of Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, the only hospital in service in the area, said the hospital began receiving dozens of bodies as well as injured including children and elderly around 5 a.m. Naim said some of the wounded were in very critical condition.

“We have a lot of amputation surgeries, cases of severe skin burns," Naim said. “This might lead to an increasing number of the dead."

The incident was the latest in a series of strikes on school buildings in Gaza that now mostly function as shelters but which Israel says are frequently used by Hamas.

Israel struck two schools in Daraj Tuffah on Thursday, saying they were being used by Hamas militants to plan attacks. Israel also struck the Hassan Salame and Nasser schools in Gaza City on Monday and said it killed a Hamas battalion commander.

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel left 1,200 people dead and some 250 taken hostage. The war has reduced much of once bustling Gaza to rubble and has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials, who don’t say how many were combatants.

The strike is likely to further complicate efforts by the U.S. to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire in the enclave and return some of the 111 Oct. 7 hostages thought to remain in the Gaza Strip, many of whom are believed to be dead. The U.S., Egypt and Qatar called on the parties to resume talks on Aug. 15, promising to present their own proposal for bridging the remaining gaps if necessary.

The U.S. says Israel has welcomed the invitation. Hamas, whose officials had yet to confirm whether they would participate, on Saturday accused Israel of “a serious escalation."

Israel’s military has wound down major operations in Gaza and is in a counterinsurgency phase of raids that target suspected concentrations of militants. While the fighting is generally less intensive and involves fewer Israeli troops than in the earlier months of the war, strikes are taking place in crowded civilian areas and continue to be deadly.

Several Arab and Muslim countries condemned Saturday’s attack, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Iran.

Egypt called the attack an “unprecedented disregard for international law and international humanitarian law," adding that it was a clear sign of Israel’s “lack of political will" to end the conflict.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry also condemned the strike, which took place during intensified efforts to de-escalate the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, accusing Israel of trying to “prolong and expand the war."

Suha Ma’ayeh and Saleh al-Batati contributed to this article.