It was midnight when Israeli warplanes bombed the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, setting it ablaze. Families who had sought refuge in the school after being displaced were instead engulfed by fire in the early hours of Monday, desperately trying to reach loved ones trapped in the flames.
The aftermath of the Israeli strike revealed the charred remains of more than 30 Palestinians, 18 of them children and six women.
Alaa Talal Abu Odah told Middle East Eye that most of those residing in the school, located in the al-Daraj neighbourhood, were asleep at the time of the strikes.
“Those who were awake and moving through the hallways were either burned or thrown by the blast,” recalled the 37-year-old witness, adding that the school-turned-shelter was struck by at least three missiles.
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“Entire families were wiped out. The classrooms were filled with children and women, people who had fled from Shujaiyya and Beit Hanoun. They came here seeking safety, crowded together, only to be reduced to charred corpses.
“Those still alive clung to the classroom windows, screaming ‘Save us, help us!’ after catching fire. We couldn’t break down the walls to rescue them. My brothers began filling buckets of water and pouring them onto the flames.”
According to Odah, the medical response was incredibly slow, with rescue crews arriving an hour after the bombings.
‘The children who were asleep… they slept forever’
– Alaa Talal Abu Odah, eyewitness
“Whoever had burned, had burned. The children who were asleep… they slept forever. They went to sleep hungry, with nothing to eat,” she grieved.
Holding a black bag in one hand, Mohammad Shaker al-Masri was picking up the remains of victims strewn around in the wreckage.
“I gathered these body parts from beneath the rubble, and there are still many remains left. My cousin was killed, and we still haven’t been able to retrieve his [body]; all we’re pulling out are small fragments,” he told MEE.
“We haven’t found him, we only managed to retrieve his leg and these chunks of flesh, but the rest of his body is still missing.”
The 21-year-old was in a tent while his aunt’s family lived in a classroom within the school.
He explained that the missiles’ impact sealed the doors to the classroom where his relatives stayed.
“They couldn’t escape and were burned to death… Everything went black and pitch dark. We were asleep and only woke up to find the fire around us and the rubble above us.
“Flesh and body parts were everywhere,” Masri said, noting that several family members, including his cousin’s children, were killed in the attack.
“Most of the rest are now in the hospital.”
Targeting displaced individuals
Reeling from her own loss during the strikes, Odah said that the attack came without any prior warning or evacuation order.
“The strike came as a betrayal,” she said.
“The young men who were awake in the corridors were torn to pieces, killed, including my cousin.
“Why are they bombing the shelters, knowing full well that they’ll kill the largest number possible? This is a premeditated crime, and the world remains silent.”
Noura Hamdi al-Masri was one of those who had fled Beit Hanoun, following the Israeli army’s displacement orders.
The 19-year-old, alongside her family, had remained in the school for the past three months, seeking shelter from escalating Israeli attacks.
However, she would be far from safe, as she found herself trapped underneath the rubble and remains of the school.
“It was a terrifying feeling, the debris were on top of us, and there was fire all around, and we couldn’t save ourselves,” she recalled.
Massacres amid truce talks
Noura told MEE that half the people in the school lay awake in the late hours of the night as they listened to “hopeful news about a truce and negotiations”.
“Then suddenly, missiles started falling on the classrooms, and we lost our families and our children. Half were killed, the other half were injured,” she said.
Israel killed my family and destroyed my home. The world just kept scrolling
Since the war on Gaza began on 7 October 2023, Israeli forces have killed nearly 54,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health and government officials.
Expanding military attacks in recent weeks have only furthered the humanitarian crisis in the already vulnerable, besieged enclave.
Odah expressed a sense of hopelessness amongst the population amid continuing ceasefire negotiations.
“We’ve stopped being optimistic. Whenever you hear that there are negotiations, [we] just know that massacres are coming.
“Ever since we heard yesterday about efforts to resume negotiations, the bombing hasn’t stopped, it’s everywhere. You don’t know where it’s coming from. This is annihilation, this is truly genocide.”
