June 7 (Voive7 News) - Up to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members were inside the school when Israel launched what it called a targeted airstrike on Thursday. According to a Hamas spokesman, 40 people were murdered, including women and children who were taking refuge inside the U.N. campus.
 
Video video from the incident, which occurred during tense negotiations for a truce that would entail the release of hostages held by Hamas and some of the Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, showed Palestinians carrying away dead and several injured at a nearby hospital.
 
Imad al-Maqadmeh, a Palestinian child, lying on the ground inside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, his face bloated, heavily beaten, and bleeding. He said that the strike claimed his father.
 
"What actions did we take? The school is not filled with armed individuals. There are kids there, having fun. Together, we play... "Why did they bomb us?" In the footage Reuters was able to get, he stated.
 
It was hard to tell from the footage whether the bodies of the deceased, who were accompanied by weeping mourners at the hospital, contained non-combatants because most of them were covered in shrouds or rugs.
Following eight months of fighting in the Gaza Strip, the United States and other nations released a joint statement urging Israel and Hamas to make whatever concessions were required to reach a settlement.The head of the government media office managed by Hamas, Ismail Al-Thawabta, denied Israel's claim that a Hamas command station was concealed in the U.N. school located in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
 
"The occupation uses ... false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people," Thawabta stated to Reuters.
 
The Israeli military released satellite images showing two sections of a structure where it said the fighters were stationed and claimed that its fighter aircraft had executed a "precise strike".Military spokesman Lt Col. Peter Lerner declared, "We're very confident in the intelligence," alleging that Islamic Jihad and Hamas forces were intentionally utilising U.N. installations as operating bases.
 
He claimed that there were 20–30 combatants within the complex, many of whom had already lost their lives. "I'm not aware of any civilian casualties and I'd be very, very cautious of accepting anything that Hamas puts out," he stated.
Daniel Hagari, the top military spokeswoman for Israel, later stated that nine out of the thirty Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists targeted in the pre-dawn attack have been identified by the military thus far.
 
Washington stated that it expected Israel to provide the people with complete transparency over the strike.Rockets were heard as survivors like Huda Abu Dhaher woke up at the school and began clearing debris from bloodstained classrooms.
"Remains of people were strewn all over the garden and outside. "The gas canister burst," the source informed Reuters.
 
"My nephew was martyred (killed), he lost his leg and arm, he was a 10-year-old."
 
6,000 displaced individuals were being housed at the school, which is operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), according to UNRWA Director Philippe Lazzarini.
 
He posted on X, saying, "At least 35 people were killed and many more injured." "It is disturbing to hear allegations that armed organisations may have been inside the refuge. However, we are unable to confirm these assertions. A flagrant violation of international humanitarian law occurs when someone attacks, targets, or uses UN installations for military objectives."
 
Thirteen women and nine children were among the forty confirmed dead, according to Thawabta and a medical source.
The incident was deemed "horrific, tragic" by the UN.
"It's just another horrific example of the price that civilians are paying, that Palestinian men, women and children who are just trying to survive, who are being forced to move around in sort of a death circle around Gaza, trying to find safety, are paying,"
 
spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. The building was once used as a school, but with no schools now operating in Gaza it was being used as a shelter, he added.
 
CALENDAR FIRE RESEARCH
 
The attack occurred in the heart of Gaza, where Israel, facing insurgents who use hit-and-run tactics, on Wednesday declared the start of a new military assault. It states that violence won't stop during cease-fire negotiations, which have became more intense since US President Joe Biden presented a plan for a truce on Friday.
Hamas wants the fighting to stop permanently. According to Israel, the Islamist militant group must be destroyed first.
 
A unusual incident near the Israel-Gaza border was reported by the Israeli military, which also claimed that three Palestinian fighters were killed in return fire after a soldier was killed. This is a delicate development.
 
A statement by the Hamas armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said its fighters had conducted an operation behind enemy lines in the Rafah area of sou thern Gaza, corresponding to the location in the Israeli military's account. On Wednesday in Doha, senior representatives from Qatar and Egypt, the mediators, met with CIA director William Burns to go over the proposal for a truce.
 
According to two security sources in Egypt, negotiations carried on on Thursday but produced no results.
Since a single, week-long truce in November, all attempts at a ceasefire have failed.
According to Israeli estimates, Hamas launched the conflict on October 7 by striking Israeli territory, killing almost 1,200 people and taking over 250 captives. During the ceasefire in November, around half of the hostages were set free.
 
Health authorities in Gaza report that over 36,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel's military attack, and thousands more are thought to be buried beneath the debris.U.S. and Israeli officials have told Reuters about half of Hamas's forces have been killed in the conflict. Hamas does not disclose fatalities among its fighters and some officials say Israel exaggerated the figures. Israel's own military death toll is almost 300.
 
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