German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv     Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images

Berlin, August 15 (RHC)-- The Israeli airstrike on the Tabeen school in Gaza that killed more than 100 Palestinians was legitimate self-defense, according to the German government.

The recent attack on the facility, which served as a shelter for displaced persons, has been described as the deadliest since the start of the current conflict, now over 10 months ago.

“Israel has the right to defend itself.  The reality is that Hamas uses schools, hospitals and kindergartens as command centers and that the people in the Gaza Strip are also abused against their will as protective shields,” Wolfgang Buechner, deputy spokesman for the German government, told reporters in Berlin.

Buechner neglected to mention that independent investigations have discovered that there was absolutely no evidence of a so-called "Hamas military command center" and that those who were killed were women, children and infants.

The airstrike on Saturday morning came during the pre-dawn prayers.  The Gaza health ministry initially reported 60 dead and 47 wounded.  Al Jazeera later reported more than 100 deaths and “dozens” of injured.

“In the hellish aftermath, body parts were strewn around the rubble and charred, bloodied bodies slumped in the wreckage of the two-story complex,” according to Agence France-Presse.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the attack, saying “there is no and can be no justification for such actions.”  Her words were echoed by the EU high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, who wrote on X that he was “horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike, with reportedly dozens of Palestinian victims.”

The Israeli military said it had targeted the school because Hamas used it as a headquarters, from which it “planned and promoted terrorist operations against the IDF forces and the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Independent investigators called the Israeli claim a lie and a false pretext used to “target civilians, schools, hospitals, and refugee tents.”

A United Nations human rights envoy has described Israeli actions as a “genocide” while several countries have intervened with the International Criminal Court to stop the brutal war of aggression.  However, Germany has openly backed Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.   Germany is second to the United States in supplying weapons to the Israeli regime.