At least 17 Palestinians killed as Israeli forces attack Gaza school and hospital

Pope Francis condemns killing of children in Gaza as ‘cruelty, not war’

At least 17 Palestinians were killed on Sunday when Israeli forces bombed a school and a hospital in Gaza City amid continuing attacks on civilian infrastructure in the besieged territory.

The military attacked the Musa Bin Nusayr School in the city’s al-Daraj neighbourhood, killing eight people and injuring several others.

The military claimed that the strike targeted Hamas militants operating from a command centre embedded inside the school. It said, without offering evidence, that Hamas militants used the place to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces.

The attack on the school followed a series of airstrikes since the early hours of Sunday that left dozens of civilians dead or injured. A separate Israeli attack on Gaza City killed four Palestinians travelling in a vehicle while airstrikes in the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Younis killed five.

Israeli forces continued to attack the barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, conducting strikes against the facility and demanding the people sheltering inside leave.

The hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, told Xinhua that getting people out was “extremely difficult due to the intense bombing”.

The Israeli military deliberately attacked the dilapidated hospital’s power generators, solar panels and ICU in recent days, rendering essential departments nonoperational, Al Jazeera reported.

Footage shared by the news platform showed wounded Palestinians seeking refuge in the hospital’s corridors after it came under Israeli fire, with bullets penetrating walls and damaging equipment.

Israeli forces have laid a siege to northern Gaza since early October, blocking food and aid deliveries to the nearly 75,000 Palestinians who refuse to leave their homes despite constant bombardment.

The UN has called the siege “strangling” to humanitarian efforts in the region.

Pope Francis, meanwhile, condemned the killing of children in Gaza in his Christmas address on Saturday, calling it “cruelty, not war”.

“Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch into Gaza as promised,” the pope said, referring to the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem who had reportedly tried to enter the Gaza Strip to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry by Israel.

“Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he added, speaking a day after Israeli attacks killed at least 25 Palestinians in the besieged territory. “I want to say it because it touches my heart.”

His remarks drew a sharp response from Israel’s foreign ministry, which rejected criticism by the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholic Christians. “Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children,” the ministry said.

Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza has killed at least 45,259 Palestinians and wounded 107,627, the health ministry reported on Sunday. The assault started after a Hamas attack killed 1,139 Israelis and saw nearly 250 taken captive in October 2023.