Israeli Strike Kills Gaza Schoolgirl En Route to Final Exams

A secondary school student was killed and several other civilians were wounded on Monday when Israeli warplanes targeted a civilian vehicle in central Gaza City, marking the latest escalation of attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Medical sources told the WAFA correspondent that secondary school student Raghad Ashour was killed and others suffered various injuries in an Israeli airstrike on the Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City. Al Jazeera reported that Ashour was on her way to the city centre, where students were sitting their public examinations, when she was killed instantly in the Israeli attack.

Monday morning had been relatively quiet, with people moving through the streets of Rimal, a commercial area in central Gaza City, attempting to carry out their daily routines. However, the calm was shattered when missiles were fired by an Israeli drone. Witnesses described seeing and hearing the drones coming from the eastern part of Gaza City. After the mechanical buzzing, the roar of missiles was heard in the street seconds later, targeting two vehicles. Witnesses recounted 15 seconds between the first, second, and third strikes. Many residential buildings and shops in the area were destroyed.

There were a number of casualties. Medical sources described many of the wounded as being in critical condition, with most victims hit by shrapnel.

Earlier, Palestinian cameraman Ahmad Washah was killed on Saturday in an Israeli drone strike targeting a house in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the Anadolu news agency. Another Palestinian was killed and a third was wounded in the same attack. Al Jazeera confirmed Washah’s death, bringing the number of its journalists and staff killed in Gaza since October 2023 to 12. Washah was the brother of Mohammed Washah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting his vehicle on Al-Rashid coastal road in Gaza City in April.