By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – The Israeli military acknowledged that it struck a school in central Gaza early Thursday that reportedly killed dozens of people, but was quick to add that Hamas fighters were operating from within the school.
Hamas-run authorities said at least 23 women and children were among the killed “displaced Palestinians” sheltering in the Nuseirat school.
Israel has accused Hamas, which it designated as an Islamic terrorist organization, of hiding among civilians, making it challenging to avoid mass casualties.
However, on Thursday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed that the school was being used as a base for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters, including “terrorists that participated in the October 7 massacre.”
The IDF said Thursday that about “20-30 Palestinians” died in its airstrike on the school of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip.
However, the IDF said that the victims were “likely all or mostly terrorists.”
The IDF pledged late Thursday to publish the names of many of the fighters it had identified at the location to show they were, in fact, “combatants” and not “innocent civilians” as Hamas-linked authorities claimed.
NO REACTION
There was no immediate reaction from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The attack came shortly after elsewhere in Israel, Israeli Sergeant Refael Kauders, 39, was reportedly killed in a drone strike launched by Hamas’ ally Hezbollah from neighboring Lebanon.
He had been among some 12 injured people wounded by the strike on the Druze town of Hurfeish in the Upper Galilee, Israel’s military said.
The IDF confirmed on Thursday afternoon that fighter jets struck several military structures in the area of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon. Additionally, an Israeli aircraft struck “two Hezbollah terrorists” that had been identified on Thursday morning in the area, Israeli sources said.
Besides Kauders, the Israeli army also mourned Sergeant-Major Zeed Mazarib, 34, who is said to have “fallen in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.”Kauders was part of the Southern Regional Division of the Border Guard Corps.
Since October 7, at least 645 IDF soldiers have died “in their mission to protect Israel,“ while several troops are still held captive in the Gaza Strip by Hamas after being kidnapped, officials say.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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