GAZA, Sept 21 (Reuters/AP): Palestinians said an Israeli strike killed at least 22 people in a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City on Saturday, while the Israeli military said the attack targeted a command centre of militant group Hamas.
The Gaza health ministry said most of those killed were women and children. The Hamas-run government media office said 13 children and six women were among the dead.
The military said it hit a Hamas command centre embedded in the compound that previously served as a school, repeating an accusation that the group uses civilian facilities for military purposes. Hamas denies that.
Reuters footage from the site showed blasted walls, wrecked and burnt furniture, and holes in the ceiling of one room as people tried to salvage what they could of belongings.
"The women and their children were sitting in the playground of the school, the kids were playing, and suddenly two rockets hit them," said one witness Said Al-Malahi.
Some of the dead were wrapped in blankets and carried away on donkey carts, as ambulances transferred other bodies.
"I couldn't take it, I did not see a single man that is injured, it was all women and children, let the Arab countries rejoice, let them rejoice and clap for (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the United States of America," said another eyewitness, Ahmed Azzam, bitter that regional neighbours were not taking a tougher line against Israel.
In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, the Gaza health ministry said four health workers were killed by an Israeli strike that hit ministry warehouses. Ambulance crews could not reach the dead or treat the wounded, it added.
In a statement, the Israeli military said forces, operating in Rafah since May, have killed dozens of militants in recent weeks and dismantled military infrastructure and tunnel shafts.
Israel's demand to keep control of the southern border line between Rafah and Egypt has been a major sticking point in international efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.
Israeli soldiers pushed
4 lifeless bodies
from roofs during raid
Israeli soldiers pushed four apparently lifeless bodies from rooftops during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene and videos obtained by AP.
The soldiers' behavior in the town of Qabatiya was the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Human rights groups say the videos provide fresh evidence of how Israel routinely uses excessive force against Palestinians.
The Israeli military said in a statement to AP that the incident, which it said would be reviewed, "does not coincide with (its) values and the expectations from (its) soldiers."
A White House spokesperson called it "deeply disturbing," and said Israel has pledged to investigate.
