On Saturday morning, the IDF and Shin Bet security agency carried out an airstrike on a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad command center located within the Taba’een school complex in Gaza City. The IDF later announced that the strike successfully eliminated 19 operatives from the two terror groups.

The Hamas-run civil defense in Gaza reported over 90 fatalities in the strike, describing it as a “horrific massacre.” The incident has drawn widespread condemnation from Western diplomats, Egyptian and Qatari mediators involved in ceasefire talks, and numerous Muslim nations. The White House expressed deep concern over the high civilian death toll in the ongoing conflict and called for more details about the strike.

According to the IDF, the operation targeted a command room embedded within a mosque at the school complex using three precision munitions. The military released footage showing that the surrounding buildings suffered minimal damage and stated that the reported casualties from the Gaza government’s media office could not have been caused by the strike.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari noted that there is a “high probability” that Ashraf Juda, the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, was present at the time of the strike, although it remains unclear if he was killed. Hagari accused Hamas of increasingly using civilian buildings, including schools, as military facilities and emphasized that the IDF took significant precautions to avoid civilian casualties during the operation.

However, Palestinian sources and eyewitnesses reported that many civilians, including women and children, were among the dead. The Wall Street Journal quoted a local resident describing the aftermath, with bodies and body parts scattered throughout the area.

Israel’s military also disputed the toll, saying the “precise munitions” used “cannot cause the amount of damage that is being reported” by the Hamas-run government. It said the steps it took to limit the risk to civilians included the use of a “small warhead,” aerial surveillance and intelligence information.

Walls were blown out on the ground level of the large building. Concrete chunks and twisted metal lay on the blood-soaked floor. Bodies, some in bloodstained shrouds, were placed shoulder to shoulder in makeshift graves, making room for more.

Fadel Naeem, director of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, told The Associated Press that it received 70 bodies along with the body parts of at least 10 others. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that another 47 people were wounded.

The U.S. said it was deeply concerned about reports of civilians killed.

“Far too many civilians continue to be killed and wounded,” U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement.

The strike came as U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to achieve a cease-fire agreement that could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Egypt, which borders Gaza, said that the strike on the school showed that Israel had no intention of reaching a cease-fire deal. Neighboring Jordan condemned the attack as a “blatant violation” of international law. Qatar demanded an international investigation, calling it a “heinous crime” against civilians.

Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking to reporters traveling with her in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, said of the Israeli strike in Gaza: “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed.”

“Israel has a right to go after the terrorists that are Hamas,” she said. “But as I have said many, many times they also have, I believe, an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.”

Pressed on the fact that such comments have done little to lower the numbers of civilians in Gaza killed in recent months, Harris said, “First and foremost — and the president and I have been working on this around the clock — we need to get the hostages out.”

“We need a hostage deal and we need a cease-fire,” she said. “And I can’t stress that strongly enough. It needs get to done. The deal needs to get done and it needs to get done now.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC / AP)