Israel kills 25 in classrooms of Khan Younis shelter, eyewitnesses describe ‘headless children’ pulled from rubble

Amid the burnt blankets, charred mattresses and rubble of destroyed classrooms, Gaza’s civil defense teams worked on Sunday night using flashlights of mobile phones held by civilians at the scene to recover the remains of 25 Palestinians, including children, who had been killed by another Israeli airstrike. 

The strike hit the third floor of the Ahmed bin Abdel Aziz school, affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), destroying three of the classrooms where displaced families were taking shelter in western Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

The strike came without warning at 8:30 pm, catching the displaced families off guard as they settled into their rooms for warmth, preparing to sleep. "We are displaced people staying in the school, after four displacements, and they told us the school was safe," Um Mohamed Ashour, a survivor of the strike, told Mada Masr. 

Um Mohamed was horrified, along with thousands of other displaced people in the school, by scenes of "headless children" being pulled from the rubble of the targeted building.

Mohamed Khella, a child displaced to the targeted school, also described seeing "the charred bodies of children after the explosion."

Six of the massacre's victims were five girls and their mother, who had been living in the room next to Um Mohamed’s. "They died hungry, with no dinner available," she said, adding that they "had no concern for politics or terrorism."

The Israeli military claimed that “terrorists” had operated from within the school and that they had taken steps to minimize civilian harm, according to the Israeli press.

A fire broke out due to the strike at the site, killing and injuring several of the displaced people sheltering in the school, said Asaad al-Saqqa, an officer in Gaza’s Civil Defense Directorate. 

Saqqa told Mada Masr that civil defense teams were unable to respond with full capacity due to fuel shortages which made it impossible for them to operate fire trucks and rescue vehicles. 

All civil defense vehicles in Khan Younis have been out of service due to the escalating fuel crisis, he said. Despite repeated appeals by their directorate, the calls have gone unheeded.

The Ahmed bin Abdel Aziz school sheltered around 150-180 families, and is located facing the Nasser Medical Complex. The complex, the largest medical facility in south Gaza, shook on Sunday night due to the force of the blast from the attack, according to Mohamed Zaqout, general director of hospitals at Gaza’s Health Ministry. 

Zaqout told Mada Masr that many of the injured suffered critical injuries to the head, chest and abdomen, and are currently undergoing urgent surgical procedures. Among the victims brought to the hospital were children, he said, some of whom arrived in pieces.

The dire shortage of medical supplies and unavailable resources means the death toll among those critically injured is frequently higher than it should be, Zaqout added.

Displaced families in the school are now searching for a new place to shelter after the strike left several of the shelter school’s classrooms destroyed, rendering it unsafe out of fear of further Israeli targeting, Ahmed al-Haj, another displaced person sheltering at the school, told Mada Masr. There are several similar schools in the area surrounding the Nasser Medical Complex.

But Haj said that the Israeli military has ignored the schools’ UNRWA affiliation and their protection under international law. "There is no safety," he said.

Since the start of Israel’s ongoing aggression 14 months ago, and prior to this latest attack, the Israeli military had targeted 211 displacement shelters in the strip, Gaza’s Government Media Office reported. The media office also reported that 132 schools and universities have been completely destroyed, with 348 others partially damaged.

The family of Mohamed Khella has since moved to another school where his sister and her husband are sheltering, cramming into an already overcrowded room.