Amid global criticism, Israel names 19 it says it killed in terror HQ at Gaza school
White House ‘deeply concerned’ by strike; Egypt, Qatar fume; top EU diplomat slams unjustified ‘massacres’; IDF dismisses Hamas claim 90 killed, says no major damage to school complex
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.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy said that Britain was “appalled” at Israel’s deadly airstrike and called for “an immediate ceasefire.”
“Appalled by the Israeli Military strike on al-Tabeen school and the tragic loss of life,” Lammy wrote on X, adding: “We need an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians, free all hostages, and end restrictions on aid.”
France said it condemned the strike “in the firmest of terms.”
“For several weeks, school buildings have been repeatedly targeted, with an intolerable number of civilian victims,” it said.
In recent months, dozens of airstrikes have been carried out against Hamas sites embedded within schools and other sites used as shelters for civilians, according to the IDF.
The IDF said two days ago that it had struck Hamas command and control centers in schools in the Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods. And on Monday, it said the commander of Hamas’s Sheikh Radwan Battalion was killed in an airstrike at another school in Gaza City.
“Since the beginning of this war, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations have been systematically abusing the civilian population and infrastructures in Gaza for their terrorist activities against the state of Israel,” Hagari said Saturday. “This includes Hamas’s massive network of underground tunnels which go under towns, hospitals, mosques, schools, and UN facilities, and are used by terrorists to command attacks, store weapons, and hold Israeli hostages captive.”
“It also includes hospitals across the Gaza Strip, which have been repeatedly infiltrated and weaponized by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and where terrorists, tunnel shafts were found. 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 terror attacks.”
According to military assessments, Hamas operatives are struggling to remain inside tunnels as the long war drags on and are therefore increasingly moving to above-ground sites, while hiding among innocents.
Egypt claimed Israel’s “deliberate killing” Saturday of Palestinians showed that it lacks a political will to end the war in Gaza amid negotiations for a deal that would see hostages released by Hamas in return for a ceasefire.
Qatar, which like Egypt has been mediating in the talks between Israel and Hamas, demanded an urgent probe after the strike.
The Qatari foreign ministry said it renewed the Gulf emirate’s “demand for an urgent international investigation, including the dispatch of independent UN investigators, to ascertain the facts regarding the Israeli occupation forces’ continued targeting of schools and shelters for displaced persons.”
The foreign ministry of Lebanon — from where Hezbollah has been launching near-daily attacks on Israel in solidarity with Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities that started the ongoing fighting — said the strike showed Israel’s intention to “extend the war,” while Saudi Arabia urged the end to the “mass slaughter in Gaza.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson claimed the strike was proof of “genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity simultaneously” and called for broad action by Muslim countries against Israel, and support for Palestinian “resistance.”
Turkey, another supporter of Hamas like Iran, denounced a “new crime against humanity” after Israel’s attack, according to a foreign ministry statement.
“Israel has committed a new crime against humanity by massacring more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge in a school,” the ministry said, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting “to sabotage ceasefire negotiations.”
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in Palestinian territories, accused Israel of committing “genocide” in its war against Hamas after the strike.
“Israel is genociding [sic] the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one safe zone at the time,” she said on social media platform X.
The Times of Israel exposed Albanese’s history of antisemitism, including comments on how the “Jewish lobby” was in control of the US, in an investigation in 2022.
Albanese, who is tasked with investigating Israeli activities in the Palestinian territories, has not faced any repercussions from the UN or issued a clear apology for her past statements. She has continued to lob accusations of war crimes against Israel in recent months.
The war in Gaza has been ongoing since October 7 when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. One hundred and eleven of the hostages are still held; the IDF has established that 39 of them are dead.
In response, Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza with the proclaimed objectives of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 39,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including schools and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 331.
