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In the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a school in northern Gaza, civil defence worker Nooh Al-Shaghnobi put his life on the line to rescue a wounded man trapped beneath rubble, even as warnings of another incoming Israeli attack echoed around him.
Footage of the harrowing scene has circulated widely on social media, showing Shaghnobi frantically trying to free a man pinned under the debris of Dar al-Arqam school, which had been serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.
The strike by Israeli forces, which occurred last Thursday, killed at least 31 people, including children, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
Recalling the terrifying moment, Shaghnobi told AFP, “The scene was terrifying as people fled the building,” referring to the Dar al-Arqam school, which Gaza’s civil defence said served as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
“I became anxious, and the injured person grew even more distressed,” he said. “I tried to calm him down, telling him, ‘I will stay with you until your last breath. We will die together if we must.'”
Using only his bare hands, Shaghnobi dug through concrete and rubble to reach the man’s leg, which was trapped. Despite the man’s pleas for him to leave and save himself—’Why did you come back, man? Leave me to die. Get out,”—Shaghnobi remained determined.
At one point, the two were reportedly the only people left in the building, as Israeli surveillance drones circled above.
Then, a colleague rushed in with an urgent warning—they had just 10 minutes before another strike was expected at the same location. Summoning all their strength, the two managed to free the man’s leg and carry him to safety with the help of other rescue workers who had initially hesitated to return.
The school targeted in the Israeli strike is in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood northeast of Gaza City and had been housing families displaced by the ongoing war.
Since the recent destruction of Gaza began in October 2023, following Hamas’s attack on Israel, most of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million has been displaced, many of them multiple times, with schools and public buildings being used as makeshift shelters.
Just days later, another Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza City killed at least 23 people and wounded over 60.
The building, like many others, had been hosting displaced families. In an attempt to justify its brutal attack, the Israeli military stated it was targeting a “senior Hamas terrorist” in the attack.
