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Salma Saud was sleeping at Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz School in Khan Younis when rubble and debris fell on her.
“I felt scared and I thought maybe that’s it,” the 19-year-old told CBC News.
The debris came from an Israeli strike on the UN-led school. At least 20 displaced Palestinians sheltering in the building were killed when Israel shelled the building without warning, survivors said.
“My sister lost consciousness… (and) my mother, as soon as I removed the debris I knew she was martyred,” Saud said.
“I lost my father earlier today…and I lost my mother today.”
Survivors say the strike hit the building around 9:30 p.m. Many of them, including 30-year-old Khitam Al-Tarawsa, were taking refuge in the school after Israeli attacks forced them to flee several times.
“The kids were panicking, and even us adults were panicking,” he said. “We started running in the middle of the night and found three or four classrooms collapsed on top of each other and there were martyrs.”
The attack was one of several weekend Israeli attacks in the besieged territory, including in Beit Hanoon and Deir el-Balah.
Elsewhere, an airstrike hit the civilian emergency center in the Nuseirat market area in the central Gaza Strip, killing Ahmed Al-Louh, a video journalist for Al Jazeera TV, and five people more, doctors and journalist colleagues.
Another attack on a house in Nuseirat countryside killed five people, including children, medics said.
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Amnesty International has accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a new report, an accusation Israel vehemently denied, saying it has respected international law.
The Israeli military said it struck sites used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants operating out of the Gaza Civil Defense Nuseirat office. But those affected by the strikes say that the vast majority of those killed were women and children.
“We were sitting in our houses, innocent people in their space. Suddenly, they saw the bomb land in the middle of the room,” said Khaldiya Tafesh, who lost her son and seven grandchildren to the strike in the UN school.
“Nobody or anything was wanted.”
‘I’ve lost everyone’
Al-Tarawsa and her family were taken to Nasser Hospital after the Israeli attack, but returned to the school in the morning to assess the damage.
He said everything was destroyed, “nothing in one piece, no furniture left.”
Survivors say Israel did not warn them before the attack, so many who were in the building were asleep when the bomb fell.
“The bomb fell and we don’t know from where or who was hit,” Al-Tarawsa said. “Up until now, it was giving us a headache.”
The attack left a bloody scene for survivors and medical personnel. Al-Tarawsa says shrapnel from the attack hit her and her children, who were sitting near the site of the attack.
Elsewhere in the building, 23-year-old Bisan Azdoudi says he saw loved ones’ brains pouring out of their heads.
“I lost my uncle, I lost everyone. I have no one left,” he said. “I tried to pull my brothers and sisters out from under the rubble. There is no one left.”
Sharif Awda says women and children were being brought to the hospital in pieces as the strike and its impact had separated them.
“We never imagined that they would attack this school,” he said. “If you were going to attack a UNRWA school, you should warn them.”
More than 45,000 dead: Ministry of Health
Gaza’s health ministry on Monday updated the death toll to 45,028 people, with 106,962 injured since the start of the war.
The official toll represents about two percent of Gaza’s total pre-war population of 2.3 million, although officials say the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are still buried under rubble or in areas that doctors cannot access.
Israel claims Hamas is responsible for the civilian death toll because it operates from civilian areas in the densely populated Gaza Strip, but human rights groups and Palestinians say Israel has not taken sufficient precautions to prevent civilian deaths.
The Israeli army says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Gaza’s Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count, but has said more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
In addition, UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and even the United States have used Ministry of Health numbers in the past.
With the death toll rising, efforts to reach a ceasefire have picked up steam in recent weeks after repeatedly faltering. Qatar, Egypt and the US have renewed their efforts to negotiate a deal at higher levels in recent days. Mediators have said there appears to be more willingness on both sides to conclude a ceasefire.
Al-Tarawsa says it has no energy left to deal with Israel’s constant attacks, which have been ongoing since Hamas militants broke into Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel says the attack killing about 1,200 people in Israel and taking about 240 hostages. back to Gaza
“We are tired of bombing and war,” Al-Tarawsa said.
“We live here, yes, but there is no safety. We live between walls, no door is safe, no window is safe. Nothing is safe.”
