SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
One of the deadliest strikes in Gaza since the war began occurred today. Palestinian health officials say more than 90 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school. Israel says it was a Hamas command center. Hamas has denied those claims. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf joins us now from Tel Aviv. And many of the details will be disturbing to people. Kat, thank you very much for being with us.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: What can you tell us about the attack?
LONSDORF: Yeah. Well, this strike happened at dawn on a school compound that was sheltering thousands of people - mostly families - in Gaza City in the north. You know, this is an area where people have been displaced since the very beginning of this war back in October - many people, several times. The school had a mosque on site, so many people were performing the morning prayer at the time of the strike.
Mahmoud Basal, the spokesman for Gaza Civil Defense - they're the first responders on the scene to strikes like this - he gave a press conference this morning, and he described it as a, quote, "horrific massacre." You know, he described bodies in pieces and others engulfed in flames. He said that people were unrecognizable, that they're still working to identify casualties. And he stressed that many of them were children, you know, and women and elderly among the dead.
NPR spoke to the head of the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. That's where many of the casualties were taken. He also confirmed those details. He added that he operated on a 1-year-old, who didn't make it, this morning. He said that people were coming in missing two, even three limbs and that he expected the casualties to rise because the hospital just doesn't have the resources to treat these kind of significant injuries. Most hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed after 10 months of fighting, and even basic medical supplies are hard to come by.
SIMON: And, Kat, there have been other bombings of schools sheltering displaced people too, haven't there?
LONSDORF: Yeah. This is sadly becoming a pattern. You know, the UN recently put out a statistic saying that more than 85% of all the schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed in Israeli airstrikes. And keep in mind that pretty much every school is used as a shelter for displaced people these days.
And every time, Israel puts out nearly the same statement, saying that Hamas has been operating from the school. In this case, Israel said the same thing, but went into greater detail, saying that 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating out of this compound, but Hamas has denied that. The Israeli military also always says after these strikes that, quote, "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians," going on to say that they used, quote, "precise munitions and intelligence." But we've been really pushing them on that, especially after this strike, trying to get more detail from them on what exactly that means with a death toll this high. But we haven't gotten a response.
SIMON: And Israeli operations continue in other parts of Gaza, including a new operation into Khan Younis in the south?
LONSDORF: Yeah. This is the third Israeli offensive into Khan Younis. The city has already been, essentially, leveled in fighting. And it came with yet another wave of evacuation orders for Palestinians. Thousands fled the city two weeks after they had returned from the last Israeli offensive there in July. And it's important to note that Khan Younis is also where Yahya Sinwar, the newly named leader of Hamas, is from. Israeli and U.S. officials have said that he could be hiding in tunnels under the city.
SIMON: At the same time, there is a continuing push for a cease-fire by several international parties, including the U.S. Where do those talks stand?
LONSDORF: Well, those talks have been tabled in recent weeks, especially after the Israeli killing of both a high-level Hezbollah leader in Beirut and the leader of Hamas in Tehran recently. There's been a lot of tension here and in the region, waiting to see if and when Iran and its proxies will respond.
But just this week, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar started pushing again for talks to resume on August 15. Israel has said it will attend, although it's not clear that Israel's position has changed at all. We haven't gotten word from Hamas on their thoughts on talks resuming, although it's hard to imagine that this deadly strike will help that process.
SIMON: NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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