By Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman and Sana Noor Haq, CNN
(CNN) — An Israeli airstrike killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens more sheltering at a school in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Thursday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
The attack on the Rafidah school injured at least 54 Palestinians, according to the Red Crescent. Hospital officials have confirmed the death toll.
The Israeli military said it struck “terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center” at the school compound, saying “numerous steps” were taken to protect civilians. CNN cannot independently verify the claim.
Thursday’s strike is the latest to hit a school in Gaza. Last month, an Israeli strike on a school compound near Gaza city, killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian officials. Israel said it targeted Hamas fighters sheltering there.
In August, local officials said that more than 90 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school and mosque in the Al-Tabi’in compound in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City, where displaced people were sheltering. Israel confirmed it carried out the strike, saying it had targeted a Hamas command post and killed several fighters.
Israel has renewed its military operation in some parts of Gaza, saying it is targeting attempts by Hamas to regroup, and has ordered mass evacuations of multiple neighborhoods across the enclave.
The latest strike comes as Gaza’s health ministry reported more than 42,000 people killed in the besieged territory since the war began a year ago following the Hamas attacks of October 7, and as Israel presses on with a ground incursion into Lebanon while weighing an attack on Iran.
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