The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has killed at least 22 civilians, mostly orphans and widows, following a recent bombing of school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Gaza.

On Sept. 21, the IDF conducted a military airstrike at Zeitoun C school in southern Gaza due to the alleged Hamas “command and control center” operations embedded within a civilian infrastructure in the area. The IDF claimed that Hamas violated international law by operating from within civilian areas, but the latter denied these accusations. (Related: Gaza death toll now over 40K; 69% of casualties are women and children.)

The IDF claimed that they took “numerous steps” to mitigate civilian harm before the strike. However, eyewitnesses reported that children and women were gathering in the school’s playground to seek assistance from a charity orphan sponsorship program after losing their primary caregivers in earlier attacks when two rockets hit without warning.

“The women and their children were sitting in the playground of the school, the kids were playing and suddenly two rockets hit them,” said Said al-Malahi, one of the witnesses.

Another witness named Ahmed Azzam also said he did not see a single man among the wounded. “It was all women and children,” he said.

Footage of the school shows significant damage, with walls torn apart, furniture reduced to rubble and large holes blown through the ceiling of one of the rooms.

Furthermore, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza confirmed that 22 people were killed in the strike, including a three-month-old baby, while 30 others were wounded. At least nine of the injured children lost limbs and several suffered severe burns. Two people remain missing.

IDF has been targeting inactive schools with displaced civilians in Gaza since the war escalated

This is the most recent Israeli airstrike that targeted inactive schools in Gaza, which have been used as shelters for displaced civilians since the beginning of the conflict.

On Sept. 11, Israel hit the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians forced from their homes by indiscriminate Israeli bombings sought refuge. The attack left 13 people dead, including six staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Similarly, on Aug. 1, an Israeli attack on Dalal al-Mughrabi School in Gaza killed at least 18 people. Two days later, 16 more lives were lost when Hamama school was bombed.

On Aug. 4, a series of air raids on Nassr and Hassan Salama schools claimed the lives of at least 30 people, and on Aug. 8, 17 more were killed in attacks on Abdul Fattah Hamouda and az-Zahra schools. On Aug. 10, another devastating airstrike hit al-Tabin school in east of Gaza, which left over 100 people dead and 150 wounded.

Overall, the Gaza media office claimed that Israel has bombed 181 shelter sites since the conflict escalated. William Deere, the director of UNRWA in Washington, also revealed that a total of 190 UN-run facilities have been targeted, with many hit multiple times.

Head over to IsraelCollapse.com to read more news about the escalating Israel-Palestine war.

Watch the video below that exposes the massive profiteering of ceasefire negotiators off the continuing Gaza war.

This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com.

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Sources include:

MiddleEastEye.net

AlJazeera.com

Brighteon.com