At least seven bodies of displaced Palestinians were recovered from the Shadia Abu Ghazala school, including women, children and babies who were “shot at close range.”

Jabalia, Gaza Strip – There were corpses piled up in the classroom instead of books. Bullet holes dotted some of the walls. Others were apparently charred by fire.

Displaced families were staying at the United Nations-run Shadia Abu Ghazala school west of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza when Israeli soldiers entered the building. According to witnesses and families of those killed in the attack in early December, a massacre occurred.

Videos and images obtained by Al Jazeera showed bodies discovered on December 13, piled up at the school. Since then, survivors of the attack and family members of the victims who returned to the school to search for their loved ones have come forward to tell of the horror of those moments.

Witnesses said several people, including women, children and babies, were executed by Israeli forces while seeking shelter at the school.

The father of one of the victims said he was sleeping with his wife and six children when Israeli soldiers “suddenly” stormed the school.

“They entered the classroom where we were and shot directly at those present without saying a word,” he said.

“They prevented me from speaking, asking questions or commenting on anything, and every time I tried to talk to them they silenced me,” he recalled.

The man believes that he was then ordered to leave school for “reasons of age”.

“They expelled about 20 people from the school, stripped them of their clothes and interrogated them,” he said.

“Directly shot at”

The footage shows traces of blood and remnants of the victims’ belongings that they had with them before they were murdered, while bullets pierced the walls of the classroom where bodies were found.

Saeed Jumaa’s sister was among those killed along with her husband and children.

Jumaa said he was able to return to check on his relatives at the school a few days later when Israeli forces left the school, but was “shocked to find that everyone inside had been brutally executed.”

“My sister’s husband was in the room and next to him were her sons Maysara and Ahmed. My sister in the corner hugged her remaining children,” Jumaa said.

Israeli forces killed them by “firing at them at close range,” he said. Their bodies were “swollen and full of worms,” he added.

According to Jumaa, Israeli soldiers had written “something in Hebrew” on his nephew’s face.

“We did not understand the significance and were in a hurry to bury them days later as their bodies had decomposed,” he said.

Another witness who found the bodies in the classrooms said there were no signs of a rocket attack or grenades in the classrooms, adding that the victims had come under “direct fire” from ground troops.

In total, at least seven bodies were found in three different classrooms. Four were in one room, two in the second room and one in the third.

Dozens of displaced Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on schools in Gaza, including at least three in Jabalia.

At least 50 people were killed in one attack Al Fakhoura School Last month. At least 30 people were killed in an air strike on the Abu Hussein School just a few days later.

According to the United Nations, almost 1.9 million people out of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.

United Nations-run schools have become overcrowded shelters for thousands of displaced Palestinians. Many had believed that UN designation of these buildings would protect them from constant Israeli bombardment.

Israel’s relentless attacks have killed people more than 20,000 people in Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian health authorities. Most of those killed were children and women.