GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter on Saturday killed eight people, including two children, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.
Bassal said the strike wounded 30 people, including 19 children, and that the Halwa school housed “thousands of displaced people.”
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility.
It said the air force “conducted a precise strike on terrorists in a command-and-control center” that had previously served as the Halwa school in Jabaliya.
It said it targeted the premises because “the school had been used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute attacks.”
The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than 14 months.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staff were among the 18 reported dead.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
At least 46,537 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
The October 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

PESHAWAR/KARCHI: Police in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Saturday efforts were being made to secure the safe release of kidnapped workers of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) after a banned militant network released a video featuring some of them while listing demands for their release.
The Pakistani Taliban kidnapped more than a dozen workers of the sensitive government agency responsible for nuclear energy projects from the volatile Lakki Marwat district on Thursday.
Eight of them were later released through joint efforts by tribal elders amid a search operation conducted by police and security forces in the dense forest area where the militants had reportedly taken them.
While the government did not issue a statement on the incident, Shahid Marwat, a police spokesperson in the district, confirmed that a group of nearly 18 “civilians” working on “atomic and mining projects” had been kidnapped by armed gunmen. The militants later shared their credentials on social media, identifying them as PAEC employees.
Speaking to Arab News on Saturday, Marwat said the militants had made demands for the release of the abductees, adding that local elders and officials from security forces and the district administration were holding meetings to ensure their safe release.
“Local elders and police and security officials are evaluating the kidnappers’ demands,” he said. “Efforts are on to secure their safe release at the earliest. So far, officials are busy tackling the issue through negotiations.”
Asked if the video released by the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), featured the kidnapped PAEC workers, he responded affirmatively.
In the video, a man flanked by two others mentions the date, saying: “Today, it is 11th January 2025; this is our third consecutive day in the [Pakistani] Taliban captivity.”
“Day before yesterday, reports emerged that the mujahideen [freedom fighters] had released ‘these people,’ while the reality is that even right now, 10 of us are in their custody.”
He then read out the TTP demands, requesting the government to “immediately” accept them.
The demands included the release of militants arrested in Lakki Marwat, the release of families of militants allegedly in government custody, a commitment not to demolish the homes of militants and their relatives in the future, and compensation for the homes already demolished.
Lakki Marwat is situated on the edge of Pakistan’s northwestern tribal districts bordering Afghanistan, where the TTP has frequently targeted security force convoys and check-posts, in addition to engaging in targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in recent months.