The Israeli occupation has escalated its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, intensifying its assaults on civilians and designated shelter sites in a relentless overnight campaign of destruction. In the early hours of today, as much of the world lay asleep, a devastating inferno engulfed the al-Daraj neighborhood in the heart of Gaza City.

What remains are the charred ruins of a school-turned-shelter, the scorched frames of homes, and a searing image too haunting to forget: a little girl, no older than six, stumbling barefoot through a corridor of flames, her skin scorched, her eyes wide with terror, searching, still alive, for a way out of the Israeli-made holocaust consuming everything around her.

The fire at her heels was no accident. It was born of "Israel's" bunker-busting missiles, deliberately launched at what was clearly marked as a civilian refuge: Fahmi al-Jarjaoui School, packed with forcibly displaced families who had fled Israeli bombs, only to be massacred beneath them.

BREAKING: A Palestinian girl tries to escape a fire after being targeted by an Israeli airstrike on a school, which houses displaced people in Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/eIzyKFoV71

— Royal Intel 👑 (@RoyalIntel_) May 26, 2025

The school, situated in a densely populated neighborhood, was struck by missiles that pierced the upper floors and detonated on the lower levels, where dozens of displaced civilians had taken shelter, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported. Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition, with charred remains bearing witness to the intensity of the strike, our correspondent stressed.

By dawn, at least 51 Palestinians were confirmed killed. 30 of the bodies were charred. Among them were children, women, and the elderly, incinerated in a blaze so intense that, according to local officials, human flesh turned to ash. The school became the epicenter of horror: Dozens of lives erased in a single, calculated act of genocide.

A night of horror

In Jabalia, 19 Palestinians were also killed when another Israeli strike leveled a home, as per our correspondent. 

More victims killed by the israelis are pulled from the Abed Rabbo home in Jabalia, Gaza: the israelis wiped an entire family from the civil registry pic.twitter.com/zdaCuVqqY9

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) May 26, 2025

Elsewhere in the besieged Strip, one Palestinian was martyred and others were wounded when Israeli forces struck a tent sheltering displaced families inside a kindergarten in al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation also carried out a wave of home demolitions and airstrikes across various neighborhoods and towns, including:

• Beit Lahia
• al-Shujaiya
• al-Tuffah
• al-Qarara

Read more: ICRC says 2 of its staff members killed in Israeli strike on Gaza home