Gaza residents cry and pray for relatives killed in UN school strike

A mother begs her dead child to take her hand. A young man wrapped in bandages lies crying next to the body of another man. A little boy, his face covered in dust and blood, stares blankly at the floor of a hospital while people around him scream in despair.

The scenes outside the door of the last functioning hospital in central Gaza, posted on social media by a Palestinian videographer after an Israeli strike hit a United Nations school complex, have once again highlighted the terrible dilemma that Palestinian civilians continue to face, even eight months into the war: the places where they seek refuge are often attacked.

The videos were posted on Instagram on Thursday after the attack. The New York Times confirmed that they were recorded at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah.

In the early hours of Thursday, Israel launched an attack on a school complex where thousands of displaced Palestinians had sought refuge, killing dozens. Israel says the attack targeted Hamas members who used the school building as a base. Palestinian medics say the attack killed civilians.

Among the at least 40 bodies recorded in the attack by the Gaza Health Ministry were 14 children and nine women, the ministry said.

Al-Aqsa Hospital had been warning for days that it was being overwhelmed by an influx of dead and injured since Israel launched an operation to eradicate Hamas militants in the area.

On Thursday, crowds gathered outside the hospital to cry and pray for the dead. A local Palestinian videographer released a video showing a young woman holding the body of her young son.

“Open your hands,” she pleads with the dead boy as the others around her try to wrap their arms around his body. “Answer me, you always answered me, you never liked to upset me.”

The number of people in central Gaza, particularly in Deir al Balah, had been rising in recent weeks as Gazans fled an Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah. Before Israel launched the operation in Rafah last month, the city was a major refuge for civilians pressured by Israel to go there to escape fighting elsewhere. At one point, Rafah was home to about half of Gaza’s population, according to UN agencies.

Displaced Gazans often try to set up tents or find housing near UN facilities or medical facilities, hoping that their humanitarian purpose and the fact that aid workers often pass on their coordinates to Israeli forces will make them less of a target. Yet Israel has stressed throughout the war that it will strike wherever it sees Hamas operating.

Just last week, two areas near the fighting in Rafah where civilians had hoped for safety were attacked. An Israeli attack near a tent camp in Rafah killed 45 people, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say the civilian deaths were a “tragic accident.” A few days later, an attack in the Al-Mawasi area on the outskirts of Rafah killed 21 people; Israel denied responsibility for the attack.

Khalil Farid, 57, a teacher in Nuseirat, said his neighbourhood had been hit so many times that “there are no windows left in our house to break.” But he and his family have given up trying to escape.

“At home, you know who you’re with, who your neighbors are, and you feel somehow safer,” he said. “But deep down, I know that nowhere is safe.”

Nader Ibrahim, Christian Triebert And Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed to the reporting.