Israeli airstrike on UNRWA school kills 40 in Nuseirat as escalation on central Gaza strains hospital capacity

At least 40 people were killed in a Thursday morning airstrike conducted by the Israeli military which targeted an UNRWA school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

Israeli forces bombarded areas in central Gaza including Nuseirat over recent days, as well as neighborhoods in eastern Deir al-Balah and Bureij, where the military announced on Wednesday that it had launched an operation “simultaneously above and underground.”

Thursday morning’s airstrike targeted several rooms housing dozens of displaced people, killing 14 children among those killed in the attack and injuring 74, the media office said.

The Israeli military said on Thursday morning that IAF fighter jets had conducted “a precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside the school in the area of Nuseirat,” claiming that it had “eliminated” Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants embedded inside the UNRWA facility while taking a “a number of steps to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike.”

Since the Israeli military launched its operation on the areas in central Gaza on Tuesday, dozens of families have fled the area. Speaking to Mada Masr, Atiya and his family, who were staying in a camp for the displaced in Bureij, said they were caught off guard by a sudden escalation on Tuesday. Artillery fire targeted the camp’s periphery starting at 1 pm on Tuesday, he said. 

By around 5 pm, the Israeli Air Force carried out fire-belt strikes followed by intensive shelling within the camp, forcing dozens of families to flee. Atiya said the shelling lasted for hours and came with no prior warning.

Mowafaq Awni, who traveled to Bureij on Tuesday to meet with someone to collect a sum of money, told Mada Masr that he saw dozens of families leaving the camp but continued regardless as he needed access to the funds. On reaching the agreed meeting spot, Awni did not find the person. A shell struck nearby, killing and injuring dozens. "I saw mangled bodies and many others injured," he said, adding that while trying to leave the area, he was shot in the foot by a quadcopter.

Israel’s military has deployed quadcopters — artillery-fitted aerial drones — on multiple occasions to target and kill civilians amid the war on Gaza, according to information collected by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. 

Despite his injury, Awni continued to run until passers-by took him to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where he received treatment for his injury with the available resources. Medical staff asked him to wait in the courtyard as the hospital corridors were too crowded. 

Reflecting on his narrow escape from Bureij, Awni told Mada Masr, “those who managed to flee saved their lives, and those who remained were killed."

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital’s administration has set up a tent in the facility’s courtyard to accommodate the influx of wounded individuals from the attack on Bureij. All of the hospital's beds are full, and all spaces within the facility teemed with patients, according to Mada Masr’s correspondent in Deir al-Balah. 

The following morning, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adree said that the 98th Division had launched a military operation in eastern Bureij and eastern Deir al-Balah. The operation began with airstrikes, which it said targeted military installations and weapon depots, and resulted in the deaths of several “Hamas’ saboteurs.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry convened a press conference in the hospital’s courtyard on Tuesday night stating that the number of patients and wounded exceeds the bed capacity threefold, and that the majority now lie in corridors and all available indoor and outdoor spaces. 

The ministry added that the hospital’s reception and ER can no longer receive more patients, with medical teams administering first aid treatment on the floor due to the lack of available beds. 

Surgical rooms are also operating at full capacity, attending to critical injuries while dozens others await urgent surgical intervention. Some patients succumbed to their severe injuries, amid a dire shortage of essential medical supplies.