Martyred Palestinians' toll hits 9,488 including 3,900 children in Gaza
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Saturday at least 9,488 people were martyred in the Palestinian territory since war with Israel erupted last month.
The ministry said at least 3,900 children were among those martyred since Israel began striking the Gaza Strip in retaliation to the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas militants in southern Israel. At least 15 people were martyred when Israel struck a United Nations school where thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering.
"The massacre at the Al-Fakhura school committed by the occupation (Israel) this morning left 15 martyrs and 70 wounded," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said at a press conference. There was also no immediate comment from the UN aid agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Washington's top envoy arrived in Jordan for talks with five of his counterparts one day after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed his call for a "humanitarian pause" to allow aid into Gaza.
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had come under attack several times from Hamas "tunnel shafts and military compounds" in northern Gaza and had martyred many "terrorists" and destroyed three observation posts. Hamas said it had hit an Israeli convoy with mortars. Separately, at the Osama bin Zaid Boys School north of Gaza City, AFP saw the aftermath of what Hamas authorities said was Israeli tank shelling that martyred 20 people.
'Targeted raid'
Ambulance teams rushed into the debris-littered building to aid the wounded and remove the dead. Stunned onlookers wept and wandered the scene with their hands clasped on their heads in horror.
A long row of washing still hung from windows on the building's first storey, evidence the school had become a temporary home for some of the hundreds of thousands displaced by the war.
Ambulance hit
In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on Friday hit an ambulance convoy near the territory's largest hospital Al-Shifa, martyring 15 people, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel's military said it had targeted an ambulance used by a "Hamas terrorist cell" and had "neutralised" those inside.
"We emphasize that this area in Gaza is a war zone. Civilians are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southward for their own safety," the army said. An AFP journalist saw multiple bodies beside the blood-splattered Palestinian Red Crescent vehicle. A child was carried away and a dead horse lay nearby, still tethered to a cart.
The Red Crescent said a convoy of five vehicles had been destined for the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, when they were struck multiple times. One vehicle had been transporting a 35-year-old woman with shrapnel wounds.
