Al-Tabi'in School / Dawn Prayer Massacre

On August 10, 2024 at dawn, Israel bombed the Al-Tabi'in Sharia School for Boys, located in al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, northern Gaza.

The strike happened as people had gathered to perform the dawn prayer in the school's mosque and led to a large scale massacre where over 100 people were murdered, gruesomely dismembered. Many survivors and journalists described this as one of the absolute worst massacres since October 7, 2023.

Context

Al-Tabiin is a religious muslim school for the study of Qur'an and Sharia. The school housed 2,400 displaced persons.

Israeli forces launched three bombs on the school's prayer hall during Fajr (dawn) prayer, between 5:15-5:30 am, right as the prayer started, as multiple witnesses testified the bombs struck with the Takbirat al-Ihram.

Muslim prayers start between 10 to 15 minutes after the Adhan (call to prayer), to allow worshippers time perform their ablutions and head to the mosque for congregational prayer.

The timing of the attack and the use of multiple bombs indicates that Israel deliberately intended to inflict maximum harm with full knowledge of the scale of civilian slaughter.

The Israeli airstrikes targeted 2 floors of the school: the first bomb struck an area inhabited by displaced women. The second one hit the prayer hall at ground floor.

In a report filmed the following day (August 11) journalist Islam Badr documented the impact and clearly noted how only the mosque specifically was bombed, and not other parts of the school. Journalist Ans Al-Sharid described the massacre as another indication of Israel's genocide being also a "*war on Islam".

Casualties

Over 100 people were confirmed killed as of August 10, 13:40 GMT, accounting for at least 90% of all those who were present for prayer.

A couple of days later, Al-Ahli Arab (Baptist) hospital Senior Nurse Mohammad Saeed Al-Sheikh stated that the death toll reached over 107 people killed and more than 200 injuries.

Most of the footage from the scene was horrific and extremely graphic. Families, journalists and first responders alike were visibly extremely distraught by what they witnessed at the site of the massacre, decried as scenes from hell by some.

Bodies were found torn to shreds, at least 15 of which were too disfigured to identify, and/or burned to death, whereas some victims were flung far by the violent explosions.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza Civil Defence stated that the crews did not find a single body without limbs severed.

Confirmed reports indicate that some of those killed in the massacre were survivors of previous attacks in various evacuation centres over the last 10 days. They were left sheltering alone in the school after having lost family. The murder of these last survivors further led to Palestinian families being wiped off the Civil Registry.

Among the martyrs was the 90 year-old Mahmoud "Abu Nabil" Al-Jaabari, a Nakba survivor. He had lost his home, sons, and grandsons in the current genocide and succumbed to injuries on the morning on August 15. He left behind his widow who said a few days before that the couple have nothing left in their life.

Weapon:

Explosive Ordnance expert Trevor Ball confirmed that US-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb was used in the Israeli strike on the school and mosque compound, based on fragments found on the scene (also confirmed by CNN's Allegra Goodwin).

Israeli spin

An IDF spokesperson described the death toll as "exaggerated".

In an interview on Sky News on August 12, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer outrageously claimed, when asked about the civilians killed that "there were no civilians killed".

IDF claims about "terrorists" who were eliminated in the attack were promptly debunked twice by researchers in contact with their families in Gaza:

• First time
• Amended list