By Harun Nasrullah
London (The Muslim News): A pre-dawn Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City has left at least 36 Palestinians dead, including 18 children and six women, in one of the deadliest single attacks in recent weeks.
The strike targeted the Fahmi al-Jirjawi School in the al-Daraj neighbourhood early Monday, igniting a massive blaze that swept through classrooms and tents erected in the schoolyard. Local health officials confirmed that many of the victims were burned alive in their sleep.
“The fire broke out as children and women were sleeping inside. Their bodies were burned and engulfed by the flames,” said Fares Afaneh, Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in northern Gaza. “Children and women were screaming inside the burning classrooms. We couldn’t save them because of the fire.”
“The scene was very troubling, and the severity of what we saw cannot be described,” he added in a video statement from the scene.
Eyewitness footage circulating online showed horrifying images of charred bodies, many of them children, as survivors cried out in anguish. Rescue teams transferred the bodies to Al-Ahli Baptist and Al-Shifa Hospitals, while over 60 others were injured, some with severe burns.
The Israeli military acknowledged the strike, alleging that Hamas fighters were operating within the school, but did not provide evidence to support the claim. The incident has drawn fresh condemnation from humanitarian groups and prompted renewed calls for international intervention.
Elsewhere across the Gaza Strip on Monday, the scale of devastation continued to mount. Medical sources reported that at least 81 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli strikes since dawn, with casualties reported in Jabalia, Khan Younis, and the Maghazi refugee camp.
In northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on a residential home in Jabalia claimed 19 lives, while a separate drone attack in the area killed six more. Two other strikes in the north left four dead, including a municipal worker.
Further south, Israeli jets struck Khan Younis, killing at least 12. In central Gaza, a strike on a tent sheltering displaced families in Maghazi killed one and injured several others.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that the overall death toll since the war began in October has now surpassed 53,977, with 122,966 wounded. “Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the ministry said in a statement.
In occupied East Jerusalem, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stoked further tensions by storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to mark the anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the city. “Today, Jews can pray and prostrate here. We thank God for that,” he said in a video taken during the provocative visit, which included several government ministers.
His remarks, in which he called on the incoming Shin Bet chief to “crush our enemies,” drew sharp rebuke from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. It denounced the visit as part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of “genocide, displacement, Judaization, and annexation,” and urged urgent international action to protect Palestinians.
Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, claimed it had killed several Israeli soldiers on May 22 by targeting a unit holed up in a house east of Shejaiya with an anti-personnel shell and engaging the survivors in a firefight. It also reported destroying a Merkava tank in the same area. The Israeli military has not commented on the claim.
[Photo: Charitable organizations distribute hot meals to Palestinians in Nuseirat refugee camp, who are struggling with hunger due to Israel’s attacks on Gaza and closed borders in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on May 27, 2025. Photojournalist: Hassan Jedi/AA]
