US demands transparency in Israel regarding school strike in Gaza

The United States has given Israel full “transparency” about an airstrike that reportedly killed at least 35 people in a school crowded with displaced people in central Gaza on Thursday morning.

Local journalists told the BBC that a fighter jet fired two missiles at classrooms on the top floor of the school in the city’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli military said it carried out a “precise” attack on a “Hamas compound” in the school, but the Hamas-run government media office in the Gaza Strip denied the claim.

The US called on Israel to publicly identify the Hamas fighters allegedly killed – the Israeli military then released the names of nine of them.

Israel often identifies militants to target with its airstrikes, but the United States rarely pressures the country to do so.

The Israelis “told us that they were targeting 20 to 30 militants and that they would release the names of those they believed they had killed, those militants,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

“That is what they promised. We expect them to do that, as well as any other details that might shed light on this incident.”

In a press conference almost simultaneously, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari named nine Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters he said were killed in the attack. The Israeli military later said it had confirmed the deaths of eight more Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the attack, bringing the total number of fighters killed to 17.

In Washington, Mr Miller said the US had received reports that 14 children were killed in the attack.

“If it is true that 14 children were killed, then they are not terrorists,” he said.

“The Israeli government has announced that it will release further information on this attack. We expect them to be fully transparent in releasing this information.”

The latest deaths came just a week after an Israeli attack killed 45 people in the Gaza city of Rafah.

The latest strike occurred in the early hours of Thursday at the Al-Sardi school, located in the southeastern part of the densely populated, decades-old camp where the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, provides its services, according to local journalists and residents.

Videos shared on social media showed the destruction of several classrooms in one of the school buildings and bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets.

The dead and injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, which has been overwhelmed since the Israeli military began a new ground offensive against Hamas in central Gaza this week.

The BBC is currently attempting to verify details of the attack in Nuseirat camp. Reports on the exact death toll vary.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said 40 people were killed, including 14 children and nine women, and 74 others were injured.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said at least 35 people had been killed and many more injured. The agency’s communications director, Juliette Touma, told the BBC the figures came from UNRWA “colleagues on the ground”.

Witnesses described a picture of devastation after the attack.

“I was sleeping when the incident happened,” Udai Abu Elias, a man who lives at the school, told BBC Arabic.

“Suddenly we heard a loud explosion and shattered glass and debris from the building fell on us. The air was full of smoke and I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t expect to come out alive. I heard someone shouting for survivors to come out from under the rubble. I could hardly see anything as I stumbled over the bodies of the martyrs.”

According to UNRWA, 6,000 displaced people were housed in the school complex at the time. Many schools and other UN facilities were used as emergency shelters by the 1.7 million people who had fled their homes during the nearly eight-month war.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack through a spokesman and said that UN premises must be “inviolable” in times of conflict and protected by “all parties”.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said jets had carried out a “precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded in the school.” An annotated aerial photo showed classrooms on two upper floors of the building, which the IDF said were the “terrorists’ locations.”

U.S. officials continue to push for what President Joe Biden called an Israeli ceasefire proposal.

The three-part plan would begin with a six-week ceasefire during which the Israeli military would withdraw from populated areas of Gaza. There would also be a “surge” of humanitarian aid and an exchange of some hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The agreement would ultimately lead to a permanent “cessation of hostilities” and a comprehensive reconstruction plan for Gaza. Germany, France and Great Britain reaffirmed their support for the agreement in a joint statement with the United States on Thursday and called for “a permanent end to the crisis.”

CIA Director William Burns met with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Doha on Thursday to discuss the plans, but senior Cairo officials told Reuters there were no signs of a breakthrough on the deal.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, at least 36,470 people have been killed in the nearly eight months of fighting in Gaza.

In its attacks on southern Israel on October 7, Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

Additional reporting by Rushdi Abu Alouf in Istanbul and David Gritten in London.