11 killed in Israeli strike on school, Gaza officials say – Technologist

Gaza health officials said an Israeli air strike targeting a group of policemen in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least 11 people on Sunday, while the military said it had struck a Hamas command centre.

“Eleven people, including a woman and girl, were killed when an Israeli air strike struck the Safad school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people,” civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse, adding several people were also wounded.

The school had a Hamas police outpost, another Gaza health official said on condition of anonymity.

A man takes cover behind a column as an explosion creates smoke and dust during an Israeli strike targeting a school on the outskirts of Gaza City on Sunday. Photo: AFP

The Israeli military said its air force had struck a Hamas command centre in the Safad school.

“The IAF struck Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the area that previously served as the Safad school in Gaza City,” the military said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Israeli police said on Sunday that a reservist soldier who went “on a mission” to shoot someone of “Arab origin” was arrested after firing at a victim in Jerusalem.

A police statement said the incident took place “on a Friday night” last month, without specifying the date, when the 34-year-old suspect left home “with the weapon he held as part of his reserve service”.

The suspect “was on a mission to search for a victim of Arab origin” in a park in west Jerusalem, the statement said.

“When the suspect identified a potential victim, he made the individual sit on a bench by the side of the road and began questioning him while holding the weapon against his body,” it said.

“After the suspect was convinced that the person was of Arab origin, he aimed his weapon and attempted to shoot. However, the victim managed to escape without injury.”

The suspect was arrested a few days later and told authorities “he fired the weapon to intimidate the victim”, the statement said, adding that “an indictment is expected to be filed against him in the coming days”.

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World reacts to air strikes killing Hamas leader in Iran and Hezbollah commander in Beirut

World reacts to air strikes killing Hamas leader in Iran and Hezbollah commander in Beirut

Such incidents are relatively rare in Jerusalem, although in June Israeli police said a Palestinian man was seriously wounded in a shooting incident in annexed east Jerusalem’s Old City during “a quarrel” between off-duty Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out after Palestinian militants attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli figures.

Since then, the Israeli military has been bombing Gaza from the air, sea and ground in an assault that has so far killed at least 40,738 people, according to the territory’s health ministry.

According to the United Nations, most the dead are women and children.

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