Image: A Palestinian carries the body of his five-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members during an Israeli bombardment of a school converted into a shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza, before his funeral on Dec. 20, 2025. (Credit: Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)
Dozens of people gathered Saturday in Gaza City for the funerals of six people, including children, killed the previous day in an Israeli airstrike on a school being used as a shelter for displaced residents.
Asked about the strike, the Israeli army said Friday it had identified “several suspicious individuals” during operations and that its soldiers fired “to eliminate the threat.” The army added that it was reviewing “allegations concerning casualties” and said it “regrets any harm caused to uninvolved individuals.”
On Saturday, outside the morgue at al-Shifa Hospital, a man cradled the body of a child wrapped in a white shroud, according to AFPTV footage. Five other bodies, sealed in body bags, lay on the ground as men recited funeral prayers before burial.
Gaza’s Civil Defense, an emergency service operating under the authority of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, initially said Friday that five bodies had been recovered following an Israeli strike on the Gaza Martyrs School in the Tuffah neighborhood. On Saturday, its spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, revised the death toll to six, adding that two people were still missing under the rubble.
Among the victims were a four-month-old baby, a 14-year-old girl, and two women, according to Mohammed Abou Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital.
“This isn’t a truce, it’s a bloodbath. We want it to stop,” said Nafiz al-Nader outside the hospital on Saturday, referring to the cease-fire in place since October between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Abdallah al-Nader, mourning relatives killed in the strike, said the school had been considered a safe zone. “Suddenly, without warning, they began firing shells, targeting women, children, and civilians,” he said.
The Israeli army said it had fired at suspects while conducting “operations in the Yellow Line area in the northern Gaza Strip.” Under the cease-fire, Israeli forces pulled back east of the so-called Yellow Line inside Gaza.
Hamas condemned the strike on Saturday as an attack “against innocent civilians” and described it as a “flagrant violation” of the truce. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 401 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took effect. Three Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the territory during the same period.
