Standing with his arms outstretched and his eyes wide, a bearded man wearing a red-and-white-striped shirt yells.
Devastated bodies of individuals buried under mountains of rubble are all around him. Rescuers are searching for survivors who are stuck in the wreckage with tiny children; some are limp, some are struggling, and some are dead as ash falls.
An adolescent girl, her hair and blue pajamas covered in dust, is embraced by the man in the red-and-white top with his left arm. A fire blazes brightly behind them. A few seconds later, he envelops a young woman who is wailing and flailing in agony while wearing a patterned headscarf.
Following an overnight bombardment on the United Nations-run Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz school-turned-shelter that killed 13 people, according to The Associated Press, which cited Nasser Hospital, where the remains were transferred, an NBC News crew in the Gaza Strip captured these and other photographs.
The moment Shadi Tafesh arrived and discovered ten members of his family lying together, dead and in bits, was also recorded by the team. The head of his father was cut off from his body. They dismembered his sister, her spouse, and their two kids.
Hours after the incident, on Monday morning, scores of people gathered to grieve alongside friends and family who were now wearing body bags.
It claimed to have carried out a targeted attack on Hamas militants operating within a command and control center located within a compound that had previously been the UNRWA Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz school.
The assertion that militants were operating within the premises was not supported by any evidence.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, precise aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the Israeli Defense Forces stated.
“Heinous massacre” is how Hamas described the attack in a statement issued Monday morning, accusing Israel of “systematic targeting of schools and centers for the displaced.”
According to Palestinian health sources, the bombing was the fourth in a string of Israeli strikes on Gaza schools that house displaced Palestinians over the weekend, contributing to the death toll in Gaza surpassing 45,000, the majority of whom were women and children. According to officials, more than 106,000 people have been hurt, and many more are still buried beneath the debris.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said that a raid on a school in Yaffa, northeast of Gaza City, on Saturday morning resulted in the deaths of two Palestinians.
The Al-Majida Wasila school in Gaza City that was providing sanctuary to displaced Palestinians was attacked by Israeli airstrikes hours later, killing seven people, according to local health officials.
Among the dead were women and children, including Janan Al-Ghura, a baby girl born on Friday who was slain on Saturday together with her mother Suzan.
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