Gaza officials told AFP on Monday (August 12, 2024) they had identified 75 of 93 Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike on a school building, while Israel's military said the weekend raid had "eliminated" 31 militants.
Civil defence rescuers in the Hamas-ruled territory said the Al-Tabieen religious school in Gaza City was struck on Saturday (August 10, 2024) as displaced Palestinians sheltering there gathered for dawn prayers.
The Israeli military has published the names and pictures of 31 people it said were militants who died in the raid.
Previously it had reported 19 militants were killed there.
AFP was unable to independently verify the death toll at the school, which the Israeli military said it targeted because it housed a Hamas command and control base.
"There are 93 dead in the Al-Tabieen school strike, 75 of them have been identified," Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP on Monday (August 12, 2024).
"The others have not yet been identified because some bodies are torn and charred by the bombardment."
He said the dead included 11 children and six women.
Amjad Aliwa, an emergency doctor at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, confirmed that 75 people killed in the strike had been identified.
"There are still bodies [whose identities are unknown] that are completely destroyed," he told AFP.
"There are also some families who have been displaced to the south [of the Gaza Strip] and cannot come to identify their loved ones."
The military said it struck the school compound after receiving intelligence that Hamas militants who were using it as a base had plans to attack Israel and its security forces.
"The strike was carried out using three precise munitions," it said hours after the raid, adding that "no severe damage was caused to the compound where the terrorists were situated."
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive against Hamas in Gaza has so far killed at least 39,897 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.
