‘People were trapped in flames’: Israeli shelling tears through school sheltering 120 families in Gaza City

Israeli quadcopters targeted a school sheltering nearly 120 families in Gaza City on Thursday morning, setting fire to classrooms and tents where people were seeking refuge, eyewitnesses told Mada Masr. 

The fire burned for nearly 20 minutes before those trying to conduct rescue operations were able to put it out. In that time, many inside the school were burned to death or suffered severe burn injuries.

Wafa reported that 23 people have been killed so far in the Israeli strike and ensuing fire, while tens of others were injured. 

The Mostafa Hafez school that was struck is in Hay al-Remal area of Gaza City, the crowded capital where over one million Palestinians are currently sheltering in buildings and temporary camps, according to officials’ estimates. 

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced since May as the Israeli military intensified its attacks and advanced on several towns north of the city, destroying most of the infrastructure through an aerial bombardment campaign. 

Those sheltering in the school noticed quadcopters circling around the premises just before 2 am on Thursday, Moussa Hegeila, who was at the scene with his children at the time of the attack, told Mada Masr. 

Despite being aware of the danger, everyone stayed put. “There was nowhere else for people to go. So, all the families remained inside the classrooms and tents set up in the schoolyard,” Hegeila said. 

The school was then shelled at around 2 am, according to Hegeila, who said that the entire area shook due to the explosion. 

“Fire broke out inside the school and tents. I looked around. Smoke covered everything, and my children were terrified. I reassured them then rushed outside to find the whole place engulfed in flames,” he added. 

When he arrived in the schoolyard, Hegeila and others present at the site struggled to conduct rescue operations with no access to equipment. “I began trying to put the fire out, but we couldn't find any water, so the flames kept burning, consuming the bodies of the displaced people inside." 

Another eyewitness echoed his account of the attack’s aftermath. “[After] a loud explosion went off inside the school, I heard people screaming and rushed to the scene. There were people trapped inside the flames, screaming for help, and we couldn’t put out the fire easily.”

Many of those consumed by the fire were children. 

"Children from my family were martyred, completely burned inside the classrooms. We were unable to rescue them," Hegeila said. “We tried everything we could to extinguish the fire and only managed to put it out after it burned for 20 minutes. When we finally pulled the victims' bodies out, they were completely charred and stiff from the intensity of the fire."

Among those Hegeila could not rescue were children from his own family, he told Mada Masr.

“I couldn’t carry the bodies with my hands, they were boiling from the intense heat. The children’s bodies were completely burned and charred. It was a horrific sight. I couldn’t hold myself together and fainted for a moment after seeing children from my own family turned into charred corpses.”

Wafa reported that the dead and injured were transferred to Shifa Medical Complex in eastern Gaza. 

Israel’s attack on the Mostafa Hafez school on Thursday, the second time the school has been attacked in a year, underscores the Occupation’s systemic targeting of schools sheltering those displaced by its nearly two-year-long war.

Earlier this week, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza announced the suspension of the hospital’s kidney dialysis services, warning that the hospital would cease operations within hours if not provided with the necessary amount of fuel. 

The ministry described the shortage at the time, which it said would lead to the inevitable death of patients in all of the strip’s hospitals, as part of “the Occupation's deliberate policy of severely restricting fuel deliveries to hospitals.”

The ministry then announced on Wednesday that kidney dialysis services were temporarily resumed in Shifa after the facility received  3,000 liters of diesel fuel, delaying the crisis for another couple of days.