Death toll in Israeli airstrike in Gaza City school rises to 15

GAZA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — At least 15 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured by an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City on Saturday, Hamas said.
Israeli warplanes attacked the Hamama School, which shelters thousands of displaced people, Hamas said in a statement.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Saturday that the Israeli Air Force struck “terrorists” operating within a Hamas command and control center, adding that the compound was known as the Hamama school in the northern Gaza Strip in the past.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law by operating from within civilian infrastructure, brutally exploiting the civilian population and institutions as human shields for their terror activities,” it said.
Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 39,550, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday. ■