GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Displaced civilians were sleeping when an Israeli strike hit their school-turned-shelter in Gaza City early Monday, setting everything ablaze.

Local health authorities said that at least 31 Palestinians were burned to death, including 18 children and six women, and scores were injured in the strike that targeted the Fahmi al-Jirhawi School.

“The fire broke out as children and women were sleeping inside. Their bodies were burned and engulfed by the flames,” Fares Afaneh, Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in northern Gaza, said in a video clip.

“Children and women were screaming inside the burning classrooms. We couldn’t save them because of the fire,” he said.

“The scene was very troubling, and the severity of what we saw cannot be described.”

Afaneh said the charred corpses of the victims, most of them children and women, were transferred to Al-Ahli Baptist and Al-Shifa Hospitals in Gaza City, while over 60 other civilians were injured of varying severity and burns.

Burning mass grave

Nawal Hassan, a Palestinian who lives across the school, said they woke up by the terrifying sounds of explosions, “as if the sky had fallen on them."

“There were children screaming; their voices were coming out from the burning classrooms, but the fire was bigger than everyone,” she told Anadolu, while pointing to the school with her shaking hands.

Screaming from her balcony, Nawal tried to alert her neighbors and call ambulance and civil defense teams.

“I saw with my own eyes small bodies burning and others moving within the blazes. Then all stopped, and we couldn’t do anything," she said.

“We all screamed, but the fire was faster than our voices. The school has become a burning mass grave. How are they going to convince us that wasn’t a war crime?”

Terrifying scenes

Youssef Al-Kaseeh, a young Palestinian who survived the attack, said an explosion occurred after an Israeli missile struck the school while they were asleep.

“In seconds, the fire consumed everything,” he said.

Youssef and other young men tried to open iron windows from the outside, but they failed due to the lack of equipment and the intensity of the fire.

After hours of efforts, civil defense teams managed to extinguish the fire, Youssef said.

“We tried to save what could have been saved. However, the scene was really harsh and terrifying. The remains of the burned corpses stuck on the walls and floors.”

Abu Ibrahim, another survivor in his fifties, sits between the burned walls and rising smoke. His eyes are full of anger and outrage.

“We are rightful owners; what have we done to make our children and women burn to death? We didn't steal land, we didn't evict a people, we are the owners of the land, and we will not leave it, even if they kill us all," he said.

"This is not fair. Let them leave for America or somewhere else. This is our land, and we only want to live with dignity on it.”

Refrigerator for the dead

The floors of Al-Shifa Hospital have been covered by the bodies of the victims of the deadly Israeli strike, after the mortuary was no longer able to contain the large number of corpses.

“The floor became an open refrigerator for the dead,” a paramedic said.

In a statement, the Israeli army confirmed the strike, claiming the presence of Hamas gunmen inside the school. It, however, did not provide any proof to support its claim.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 54,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.