Israeli strikes unleashed a massacre in Sheikh Radwan, killing 12 in a school shelter and bringing Friday’s Gaza death toll to 34 amid mass displacement.
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed 34 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including 12 people sheltering inside a school in Gaza City. The bombardment comes as Israeli tanks continue to advance toward residential areas, forcing thousands to flee.
Hospital sources said 30 of the victims were killed in Gaza City alone, while the rest were reported in other parts of the Strip.
In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, Israeli warplanes struck the Amr Ibn Al-Aas School, where displaced families had taken refuge. 12 people, including children, were killed. Video footage showed the dead and wounded being evacuated from the school.
Hours earlier, another strike in the same neighborhood killed five people, including three children. In nearby Al-Shati refugee camp, four more people, among them two children, were killed in an air raid.
An Israeli quadcopter drops bombs on residential homes in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/4YDShfkkUD
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 22, 2025
Heavy shelling has battered several neighborhoods of Gaza City. In Sabra, a strike on a home killed eight people, including a Fatah official, while another bombardment killed two more. Ambulance crews were reportedly unable to reach many of the casualties in Sabra and Zeitoun due to the ongoing fire.
In the Tuffah neighborhood, one person was killed, while in Sheja’iyya, Israeli drone fire killed a woman. In northern Gaza, the bombardment of Jabaliya Al-Balad left one person dead and several wounded.
South of the city, Khan Yunis was also hit. Nasser Medical Complex reported two Palestinians killed in strikes on displaced persons’ tents and a water station northwest of the city. Additional bombing raids targeted residential buildings in southern Khan Yunis.
The latest escalation follows Thursday’s strikes, in which hospitals across Gaza reported 41 people killed, including 11 starving residents who had been searching for food.
Meanwhile, displacement is intensifying. Reuters news agency reported that families have begun leaving Gaza City for coastal camps or moving further south. Residents say thousands have fled in the past ten days as Israeli tanks pushed closer to the city.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Thursday that the army had begun issuing what he described as “initial warning calls” to medical and international organizations in northern Gaza, urging them to prepare residents for evacuation.
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The Gaza Health Ministry, however, rejected Israeli threats to evacuate hospitals. Mohammed Abu Afash, director of medical relief in Gaza, warned that without international intervention, the city faces a mass exodus as Israel prepares for an invasion.
The military escalation comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved a plan to fully occupy Gaza, despite Hamas indicating its acceptance of the latest ceasefire and hostage release proposal.
The plan has been widely condemned by the international community, with critics warning it would further endanger both the estimated 20 Israeli hostages still alive in Gaza and the one million Palestinians trapped in Gaza City, already facing hunger and displacement.
(PC, AJA)
