(Times of Israel) The IDF and Shin Bet security agency on Saturday night named 19 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operatives that it said it killed in an airstrike Saturday morning on a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command room at the Taba’een school in Gaza City.
The Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run civil defense agency claimed over 90 people were killed in the airstrike, describing the incident as a “horrific massacre.” Several Western diplomats, the Egyptian and Qatari mediators of ceasefire-for-hostage talks and numerous Muslim countries denounced Israel over the airstrike.
The White House said it was “deeply concerned” about the airstrike and was seeking further details. It said far too many civilians continue to be killed in the Gaza war.
“We know Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimize civilian harm,” said a statement issued by National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett.
“Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed,” US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris told reporters separately on Saturday while also reiterating calls for a Gaza ceasefire. “Israel has a right to go after the terrorists that are Hamas. But they also have an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties. We need a hostage deal and we need a ceasefire. And I can’t stress that strongly enough – the deal needs to get done. It needs to get done now.”
According to the IDF, the strike was carried out using three “precision munitions” against the two terror groups’ command room embedded within a mosque at the Taba’een school complex.
The military said that footage from after the strike showed that there was no major damage to the surrounding school complex. It also said that the missiles “could not have caused the damage that corresponds to the casualty reports of the government media office in Gaza.”
In English-language remarks later Saturday, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that according to “various intelligence indications” there was a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was also at the school when it was struck. He said it was not yet clear if Juda was killed in the strike.
“Increasingly in recent months Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings, often where civilians are sheltering inside, to use them as military facilities, command and control centers, for storing weapons, and to execute terrorist attacks,” Hagari said in a video statement.
“After we received clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists, and in accordance with international humanitarian law, we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians. The IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of… pic.twitter.com/vViGhLzU4b
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 10, 2024
“Over the last few weeks, our intelligence has been closely monitoring an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility, where approximately two dozen Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating,” Hagari continued. “After we received clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists and in accordance with international humanitarian law, we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians, including using aerial surveillance prior to the strike and selecting very precise munitions to avoid civilian casualties.
“Early this morning, the IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of the compound. An area that, according to our intelligence, no women and children were present,” Hagari added.
Hagari also said that Hamas’s casualty count “does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and they do not match the information held by the IDF.”
It was unclear how many people were killed in all, and how many of the casualties were combatants.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Palestinian authorities and witnesses saying there were dozens of civilians among the dead. “I saw dead bodies over each other, body parts everywhere,” said Amro Selim, 22, who the Journal said lives next door to the school. “A lot of them were children and women.”
“Horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike, with reportedly dozens of Palestinian victims. At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X.
