Israeli airstrikes have killed many Palestinians at the al-Fakhoora school, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Jabalia refugee camp and another school in Tal al-Zaatar, also in the northern Gaza Strip.

At least 50 people were killed in the attack on the Al-Fakhoora school, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday. It said hundreds of people were killed and injured in the two attacks.

Israeli attacks on schools, hospitals and public facilities “seem to be a trend at the moment,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Multiple airstrikes caused severe damage to both schools, he added.

“Almost 200 people were killed in these attacks and the number is expected to rise as many lie under the rubble. People use shovels and their bare hands to dig people out,” he explained.

Several hundred people were believed to have taken refuge in both schools to flee incessant Israeli attacks. The attack on al-Fakhoora is said to have taken place in the early hours of the morning, while the attack on Tal al-Zaatar occurred later in the day.

“There are dead bodies everywhere and medical teams are trying to evacuate the wounded,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abou Azzoum reported on al-Fakhoora School.

He said that ongoing fighting during Israel’s ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip had forced many Palestinians to flee to United Nations-run schools near the Indonesian hospital for protection.

“People seeking shelter at Al-Fakhoora School in Jabalia refugee camp, many with medical problems, thought they could find shelter from the violence there. But the Israeli army seems to be sending a message: escape to the south of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Witnesses described the massive destruction at the al-Fakhoora school.

“The scenes were terrible. Bodies of women and children lay on the ground. Others screamed for help,” injured survivor Ahmed Radwan told The Associated Press by telephone. Photos from a local hospital showed more than 20 bodies wrapped in bloodstained sheets.

The Israeli military, which urged residents of Jabalia and others to leave in a social media post in Arabic, said only its troops were active in the area “with the aim of attacking terrorists.”

Israel rarely comments on individual attacks, saying only that they were targeted by Hamas.

“Nowhere in Gaza is a safe place”

Qatar’s foreign ministry condemned Israel’s renewed bombing of the Al-Fakhoora school and called for “an urgent international investigation and independent investigators to investigate Israel’s attacks on schools and hospitals in Gaza.”

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said: “Shelters are a place of safety. Schools are a place of learning. Tragic news of the children, women and men killed while being housed at Al-Fakhouri School in the north of the Gaza Strip. Civilians cannot and should not have to endure this any longer.”

Shelters are a place of safety.

Schools are a place of learning.

Tragic news of the children, women and men killed while being housed at Al-Fakhouri School in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Civilians cannot and should not have to endure this any longer.

Humanity must prevail.

— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) November 18, 2023

Tamara Alrifai, a spokesperson for UNRWA, told Al Jazeera that she had seen the “devastating” footage coming from Jabalia after the bombing, but had been unable to establish direct contact with her colleagues on the ground.

“I am still waiting for reports directly from my colleagues in Gaza, but what we are seeing is another one of these terrible incidents where civilians, people who sought shelter in a protected UN building, are paying the price,” she said.

Alrifai said more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents had been forced to “flee” south following an Israeli evacuation order to make room for its ground operations in the north, reminiscent of previous forced relocations.

“Many people who stayed in the north stayed in the UNRWA school because they thought they would have some safety there, but nowhere in Gaza is safe, not even our schools,” she said. “Unfortunately, people with the blue flag are fleeing into our buildings and seeking protection, but 70 of our buildings were hit, so we ourselves are not protected.”

Alrifai said that if Saturday’s attack is taken into account, 66 people were killed while seeking refuge in U.N. shelters.

The “al-Shifa of schools”

The Jabalia refugee camp has been the target of airstrikes for weeks as Israel claims it is housing Palestinian fighters.

The deadly bombing continued despite condemnation from the UN and regional governments.

The The Israeli army has also repeatedly attacked schools and UN-run facilities. The war on Gaza has so far killed more than 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children.

The al-Fakhoora school had already been attacked by the Israeli army several times before the war. It was a target of airstrikes in 2009, 2014 and earlier this month.

Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the school was like the “al-Shifa school” in Gaza as it had been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces, including al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, which has been a main goal since the beginning of the war and under direct siege and raid for days.

“There is nothing discriminatory about a school housing thousands of people being bombed from the air; This is intended to cause harm, human loss, suffering and death,” he said.

“When you attack a school with such a concentration of people seeking refuge in the school, you send a message that is more than, ‘I’m going after Hamas fighters here and there.'” It’s saying, ‘I want to ‘I want people to be displaced, I want people to pay a price, I want people to die.'”