Nine Palestinians killed in Gaza shelter, including journalists

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israel attacked a UN-affiliated school building providing shelter to displaced Palestinians At least nine people were killed on Sunday, including three journalists.

The attack killed nine people and injured several others at the Asma school in Gaza City’s Al-Shati refugee camp, the civil protection agency said, as rescuers searched the rubble for more victims.

The agency said six bodies had already been identified, including one of a girl.

Gaza’s government media office said the reporters killed in the attack were Saed Radwan Al-Aqsa TVHamza Abu Salmiya Sanad News Agency and Haneen Baroud, who works for al-Quds Foundation.

Their deaths bring the total number of journalists killed in Gaza to 180, the newspaper said Al Jazeera, in one of the most dangerous combat zones in recent times decades.

Israel has also attacked and killed journalists in Lebanon, leaving at least a dozen dead.

Taheer al-Rantisi said he saw “a plane destroying the building, which crashed on top of the people” there, calling the attack “a massacre.”

Among the Palestinians hiding in the school building were “innocent children and elderly people,” Rantisi said.

When the strike hit, “all the people and children were torn apart,” he said.

Paramedic Hussein Mohsen said the displaced people who had taken refuge there were from Jabalia and other parts of northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have carried out a sweeping attack since early October, killing hundreds of Palestinians.

“This is not the first time that the Israeli occupation has targeted schools,” Mohsen said.

In recent months, the army has attacked several schools that have been converted into bomb shelters, despite their status as UN members.

In recent days, tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled Israel’s major ground and air attacks in the northern areas of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel’s military strike in Gaza on Saturday left 42,924 Palestinians dead, while thousands remain missing as many are feared buried under the rubble.

Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip have been described by NGOs and several experts as a genocide.