'This is not life': Gazans reel from Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter
Tattered clothes hung from the blackened exterior of the building in western Gaza City, as rubble still smouldered below in the morning light.
Bloodstains dotted the ground strewn with the remnants of daily life. Clothing, metal chairs, tins of food and part of an electric fan lay amongst the wreckage, AFP footage showed.
"This is not a life," said Umm Yassin Abu Awda, a Gaza City resident who stood amongst mourners at the city's Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike.
"Either you strike us with a nuclear bomb and end it all, or people's conscience needs to finally wake up."
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it "struck a key Hamas terrorist who was operating in a Hamas command and control center in Gaza City".
"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians," it added.
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP that most of the 15 killed in Thursday's strike were women and children.
He also reported a large number of injuries in the "Israeli air strike on the Mustafa Hafez School, which shelters displaced persons, in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood".
They were among 69 people that the agency reported killed by Israeli forces on Thursday in the Palestinian territory, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.
Nearly all of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the nearly 21-month war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people living there.
Many have sought shelter in school buildings, but these have repeatedly come under Israeli attacks that the military often says target Hamas militants hiding among civilians.
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