24 killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

KABUL (Pajhwok): At least 24 Palestinians have been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes targeting a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza, the BBC reports.

The strikes hit the Fahmi Al-Jargawi School, which was housing hundreds of civilians who had fled ongoing Israeli military operations in the northern town of Beit Lahia.

A spokesperson for the Civil Defence agency reported that 20 bodies - many of them severely burned - were recovered from the school, where fires engulfed two classrooms that had been converted into living quarters. Among the victims were several children.

“Flames were everywhere. I saw charred bodies lying on the ground,” said Rami Rafiq, a resident who lives across from the school, speaking to the BBC by phone. “My son fainted when he saw the horrific scene.”

Video footage shared on social media showed large fires consuming parts of the school building, with graphic images of severely burned victims and critically injured survivors, including children.

The twin airstrikes are part of an intensified Israeli military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip over the past week.

sa/mud