Israeli air strike on Gaza school kills at least 40, mostly women and children

Graphic footage shows children's bodies being pulled from rubble as Spain calls for arms embargo to stop 'inhumane war'

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At least 40 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a Gaza city school at dawn, the enclave's head of emergency services has reported.

Graphic footage, purportedly filmed by rescuers, showed children's bodies being pulled from the rubble and paramedics desperately searching for survivors.

One video showed a child trying to find their way out of the burning structure.

“Civil defence crews in Gaza city retrieved martyrs and injured from inside Fahmi Al Jarjawi School in Al Daraj neighbourhood, after the Israeli occupation forces targeted it at dawn,” Gaza's civil defence agency said on Monday.

According to local health authorities, the strike on the school-turned-shelter killed at least 40 people, mostly women and children. It also wounded more than 55 people, said Fahmy Awad, head of emergency services.

He said the school was hit three times while people slept, setting their belongings ablaze.

The Israeli army said it attacked a militant command and control centre inside the school that Hamas and Islamic Jihad used to gather intelligence for attacks.

Israel's war in Gaza has drawn increasing condemnation from the international community in recent days as an aid blockade lasting almost three months has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory.

The strike came after leaked documents showed Israel intends to control three quarters of Gaza's territory within two months, which suggests Palestinians could be relocated to three small zones in the enclave.

About 40 per cent of Gaza is occupied, according to Israeli estimates, but the military expects that to rise to 75 per cent within two months, under the plans reported by outlets including The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post.

Those reports say civilians would be divided between three areas in northern, central and southern Gaza. One would be in Gaza city, a second in Deir Al Balah, and the third in Al Mawasi in the south, where many evicted Gazans have already been forced to relocate to a “safe zone” that has come under repeated attacks.

Call for sanctions

On Sunday, Spain's Foreign Minister called for sanctions on Israel as European and Arab nations gathered in Madrid. The talks aimed to stop Israel's “inhumane” and “senseless” war in Gaza, Jose Manuel Albares told reporters before the meeting opened.

Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza “massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel”, he added, describing the territory as humanity's “open wound”.

Spain also urged partners to impose an arms embargo on Israel and “not rule out any” individual sanctions against those “who want to ruin the two-state solution forever”, he added.

Arab and European ministers met in Madrid on Sunday. EPA

The new condemnation came after Gaza rescuers said 22 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli air strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said seven people were killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, in the north. Some people were still under the debris, he added, as “the civil defence does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the wounded and recover the martyrs”.

Two more people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant, were killed in an attack targeting tents sheltering displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, he said, adding that doctors were unable to save the unborn child.

Two Red Cross workers were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis, the ICRC said.

The strike was carried out on Saturday, the ICRC added, without saying who staged the attack. Israel has acknowledged that it carried out strikes in Khan Younis on Saturday.

“Their killing points to the intolerable civilians death toll in Gaza,” the ICRC said. “The ICRC reiterates its urgent call for a ceasefire and for the respect and protection of civilians, including medical, humanitarian, relief and civil defence personnel.”