Carnage at Gaza School Compound Adds to Mounting Death Toll at U.N. Buildings

The soccer ball went out of bounds and the goalkeeper was lofting it toward his teammates as dozens of people looked on from the sidelines of the courtyard. It was a moment of respite in the Gaza Strip — but it did not last. Before the ball reached the ground, a large boom shook the yard, sending players and spectators fleeing in frenzied panic.

The Gazan authorities say that at least 27 people were killed on Tuesday in that explosion, which was caused by an Israeli airstrike near the entrance to a school turned shelter on the outskirts of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

Iyad Qadeh, who was sitting outside his home near the school property, said the day had been calm, without drones buzzing overhead. Then a warplane appeared and fired a missile toward a group of young men sitting at an internet cafe, he said.

“After that, it was screams and body parts everywhere,” Mr. Qadeh said.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency that helps Palestinians, UNRWA, said on Wednesday that it was the fourth strike in four days to hit or damage a school building in Gaza. Two-thirds of U.N. school buildings in the enclave have been hit since the start of the war, with more than 500 people killed, UNRWA said.

The Israeli military said the strike on Tuesday had been targeting a Hamas member who took part in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that set off the war. It did not release details on the identity of the Hamas member or whether the target had been killed. The military said it was “looking into reports that civilians were harmed.”