Around 50 people have been killed in strikes that hit a Gaza City school, the director of Al-Shifa hospital, where the casualties have been taken, has said, AFP reports.
“About 50 martyrs were recovered from inside Al-Buraq school in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood in Gaza after missile and artillery strikes that targeted the school this morning,” hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said.
A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Friday that the Al-Shifa hospital was “coming under bombardment,” adding that 20 other hospitals in Gaza were also completely out of action.
Asked about the Gaza health ministry’s allegation of an Israeli strike on the hospital courtyard, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said: “I haven’t got the detail on Al-Shifa but we do know they are coming under bombardment.”
Asked to elaborate, she said there was “intense violence” at the site, quoting colleagues on the ground. The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said Friday an Israeli strike on the territory’s largest hospital killed 13 people.
“Thirteen martyrs and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on Al-Shifa compound today” in central Gaza City, a government statement said.
Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said “Israeli on social media and verified by Reuters on Friday shows a number of dead and wounded, including children in an area of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
Gaza’s health ministry has said 18 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals and 40 other health centers were out of service either due to damage from shelling or lack of fuel.
Meanwhile, talking to told Fox News, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a cease-fire in Gaza, saying the military was performing “exceptionally well,” but insisted Israel does not plan to reoccupy the Palestinian territory.
“A ceasefire with Hamas means surrender,” he said, adding there was no “timetable” for the military offensive. “However long it takes, we’ll do it.” Netanyahu said Israel has no plans to remain in Gaza longterm.
“We don’t seek to govern Gaza. We don’t seek to occupy it, but we seek to give it and us a better future,” he said, adding that Israel does not “seek to displace anyone.”
