Two Palestinian journalists were among at least 47 people killed on Thursday as Israeli warplanes bombed a school and a restaurant in Gaza.
At least 22 people were killed and many more injured when a strike hit Al-Karama School in Gaza City's Al-Tuffah neighborhood, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Al Manassa. The school was sheltering hundreds of displaced residents and was struck without warning, the witnesses said.
Journalist Nour Al-Din Abdo rushed to the scene to document the aftermath but was killed in a subsequent strike along with others attempting to rescue casualties.
Abdo had worked as a presenter and editor across several media outlets, and more recently had focused on documenting Israeli genocides using only his mobile phone.
"There was an explosion in the school, smoke and rubble everywhere, bodies on the ground," said one witness. "We tried to pull the injured out, but a low-flying quadcopter forced us to retreat. Some tried again, and that’s when the Israreli occupation army struck again."
Later that day, airstrikes hit a second location near Al-Shifa Hospital in the west of Gaza City. The Thai Restaurant and a busy intersection on Al-Wahda Street were targeted, killing at least 40 people, according to a medical source at the hospital.
"The restaurant was full of customers," one eyewitness said. "People of all ages were hit. Shrapnel flew everywhere, striking civilians in the street and on the pavements."
Photojournalist Yahya Sobeih was among those killed.
A relative told Al Manassa that Sobeih had become a father earlier that day and was dining with his brother-in-law at a nearby restaurant when the strike occurred.
Sobeih had contributed to multiple local and Arab news outlets. Since the first day of the genocide, he documented hundreds of Israeli attacks and the suffering of residents amid forced displacement and the starvation of over 2.4 million people, according to a journalist source who spoke to Al Manassa.
Gaza’s Government Media Office condemned the four consecutive atrocities by the Israeli occupation army over the past 24 hours in a statement shared via WhatsApp. Two of those attacks took place Thursday, while the previous evening saw strikes on Abu Hameesa School east of Bureij camp and another nearby location.
The office accused the Israeli occupation army of deliberately targeting restaurants, schools, markets, and shelters, calling the attacks part of a "premeditated strategy to maximize casualties among displaced civilians." It also noted that the the strikes constitute as war crimes and evidence of a genocidal policy.
In separate messages, the media office condemned the targeted killings of journalists in Gaza and urged the International Federation of Journalists and the Arab Journalists Union to denounce the systematic Israeli crimes against the press.
According to the office, the deaths of Abdo and Sobeih bring the total number of journalists killed since the war began to 214.
Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza on March 18, ending a ceasefire that began on January 19. The truce, which was expected to result in the release of all hostages and a full Israeli withdrawal, collapsed when Israel refused to implement its terms.
