GAZA: An Israeli strike on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, including 13 children according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Those killed include 13 children, six women, and a three-month-old baby, the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement, terming the attack as a “horrific massacre.”
The ministry also informed that at least 30 people were wounded in the attack, with several people suffering severe burns. Two people remain missing, the ministry added.
The Israeli army said that the attack was on a Hamas' "command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served" as a school.
It claimed that steps were taken to limit harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.
"The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law by operating from inside civilian infrastructure," the army claimed, an accusation it has repeatedly made.
Since the beginning of Israel's brutal war on Gaza, the Israeli army has struck a number of schools, packed with tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders. The conflict has left 90% of Palestinians in Gaza displaced, according to figures from the United Nations.
The military has repeatedly claimed that the attack was targeted on Hamas militants operating from within civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including schools, U.N. facilities and hospitals.
Earlier this month, an Israeli strike hit a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 14, according to Palestinian medical officials.
In July, Israeli airstrikes hit a girls' school in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 30 people sheltering inside.
Israel's war in Gaza has so far killed at least 41,391 Palestinians including more than 16,000 children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Also Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry said five of its workers were killed and five others injured by Israeli fire that struck the ministry's warehouses in the southern Musbah area.
Tensions soared in the region on Friday after an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb in Lebanon killed 31 people, including civilians and children. Ibrahim Akil, who was in charge of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force was also killed in the attack. Also killed was Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander in the group's military wing.
(With inputs from Associated Press)