Fahmi School Shelter Strike: 31 Killed in Gaza
Israeli airstrikes on the Fahmi school in Gaza — being used as a civilian shelter — killed at least 31 people, most of them children. The attack drew international condemnation.
In May 2025, Israeli airstrikes struck the Fahmi school in Gaza, which was being used as a civilian shelter for people displaced by the ongoing conflict. Gaza civil defense and later reports put the toll at at least 36 killed, including 18 children, and about 55 wounded, many burned when fire engulfed classrooms used as living quarters; the figures have not been independently verified. Eyewitness accounts and footage from the scene documented fatalities including children.
Schools in Gaza have been used extensively as shelters for displaced civilians throughout the conflict, as the population has been repeatedly displaced from their homes. The IDF has said Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use schools and civilian structures for military purposes; international human rights organizations have documented strikes on shelters with civilian casualties.
The IDF and Shin Bet said they struck a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command-and-control center inside the former Fahmi al-Jarjawi school and used precise munitions to reduce civilian harm; the claim has not been independently verified (overview). The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented numerous strikes on schools designated as shelters throughout the conflict.
The IDF maintains that strikes on such structures are conducted because Hamas and allied groups use them as command centers, weapons storage, and launch sites — a claim supported in some cases by IDF-released evidence and, for Al-Shifa (a hospital, not a school), by a US intelligence assessment; the IDF's claims about Al-Tabaeen were not independently verified.