EEarly Saturday morning, Louay Nasser decided to perform morning prayers in the classroom where he and his family live at Tabeen School in Gaza City, rather than walk across the courtyard to the mosque. A decision that may have saved his life.
As he stood up to pray, he heard a “bright red light” and the sound of a powerful explosion. The 30-year-old ran outside to see what had happened and was shocked at the scene that greeted him.
“In front of me were parts of men, women and children…heads severed from bodies, hands and legs everywhere,” Nasser said. “It was very difficult, but the worst thing was the man who was on fire, running and screaming. We ran to him and put out the fire. He had massive burns all over his body.”
At least 80 people were killed in three Israeli rocket attacks on the school, where about 6,000 displaced people had sought refuge, the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area said. The attack is one of the deadliest in the more than ten-month war between the Palestinian militant group and Israel. Hamas had previously massacred about 1,200 civilians in southern Israel and kidnapped 251 hostages in Gaza.
Manal al-Jabari, 21, lost seven of her family members in the attack and another ten were injured. The crying of children and screams of women mixed with smoke and the smell of blood and burnt flesh, she said, describing the aftermath of the airstrikes as “like a nightmare.”
“I looked down and realized I was standing on a (severed) foot. I started screaming,” she said. Jabari remembers looking at the opposite wall of the building, which was still standing. “I couldn’t understand how the wall was spared but not all the flesh and bodies,” she said.
Israel has faced renewed international outrage for attacking civilian infrastructure in Gaza as part of its campaign against Hamas. The school is said to be used as a command center by Hamas and its smaller ally, Islamic Jihad.
The military said in a statement that the number of Palestinian casualties was inflated and that at least 20 fighters, including high-ranking commanders, were among the dead. The Palestinian Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilian and military casualties.
For the same reason, Israeli forces have attacked 21 schools since the beginning of July – including four within four days. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Saturday that Israel was carrying out “systematic attacks on schools” in which hundreds of people had died.
Israel blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, claiming its fighters use civilians as cover, making buildings such as schools and hospitals legitimate targets.
Dr. Fadel Naeem, director of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, said Saturday’s attack was one of the most difficult of the entire war. He operated on a 16-year-old boy whose left hand was torn off and both legs were shattered. During the operation, Naeem said, he was horrified to discover that another person’s head was also lodged among the bones that made up the lower half of the boy’s body.
“This was more than the heart can bear… Despite our best efforts, the severe bleeding took his life. There are dozens more with similar injuries and with every passing moment we lose another soul,” he said on X.
Arab and European leaders condemned the attacks on the Tabeen school. US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris told reporters later on Saturday: “Once again, far too many civilians have been killed.”
But for many people in the Gaza Strip, the recent wave of international outrage over Israel’s actions rings hollow.
“It is not enough to watch all these massacres without doing anything,” Nasser said. “This must stop.”
Despite suffering such losses in Saturday’s attack, Jabari said her family will not leave Gaza to seek refuge elsewhere. “We have not thought about leaving Gaza. It is our hometown where we grew up,” she said, adding: “There is no safe place anyway.”
