Gaza University Strike Kills Three; IDF Says Munition Diverted

A Gaza university strike at the Islamic University in Gaza City killed three people on Sunday, Oct. 25, according to Al-Shifa Hospital and university sources. The Israel Defense Forces said it carried out a strike in the Gaza City area, then diverted a munition after identifying people it called uninvolved; the military said the incident was under review.

What is confirmed

Al-Shifa Hospital said it received three bodies and treated eight wounded from the Gaza City drone strike. Two sources at the Islamic University told Agence France-Presse that the dead were administrative staff and that students were among the wounded. Al Jazeera’s report described the three killed as security guards. The sources agree on three deaths but differ on the men’s roles; that identification has not been independently resolved.

The university said its campus and surrounding area were struck twice on Sunday. Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud reported that an earlier attack wounded seven female students with flying shrapnel, including one who was seriously injured. AFP’s report associates eight wounded with the Gaza City drone strike, but does not map those injuries onto the earlier attack separately. The reports do not establish whether any people were counted in both accounts, so the two injury figures are not combined here.

In an official post timestamped 15:58 UTC on Oct. 25, the IDF said it had carried out a strike “targeting a terrorist from Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza City area.” It said that, after identifying “uninvolved individuals,” the munition “was diverted in order to mitigate harm to them,” and that the incident was under review. The post did not name the Islamic University, identify anyone killed or injured, or say whether the three reported deaths resulted from the strike.

University sources place the casualties at the campus; Al-Shifa Hospital reported three bodies and eight wounded from the Gaza City drone strike. The IDF’s statement locates its operation only in the Gaza City area. That leaves the Gaza university strike account unresolved on the link between the stated target and the reported casualties.

What the parties said

The Israeli military’s account came from its own official channel, not an independent verification. Alongside identifying its target as a Hamas military-wing member, the IDF said the munition was diverted after people it described as uninvolved were identified. Its post did not provide a casualty tally or explain whether the people reported killed at the university were among those it had identified. The target description and diversion claim remain the military’s account.

Gaza’s Education Ministry said students were in class when the strike occurred, according to TRT World. The ministry condemned the attack, saying: “The global silence regarding attacks on students and universities serves as encouragement for the continuation of these crimes.” The university said the campus and its surroundings had been hit twice that day and mourned those killed, according to AFP. These are Palestinian civilian-institution accounts; the reporting reviewed for this article did not include a direct Hamas statement about this specific strike.

How the coverage splits

The Hindu’s AFP headline widens the frame from the university to “Israeli air strikes” across Gaza and attributes other deaths to local authorities. It identifies the campus dead as administrative staff and reports four other deaths elsewhere. Its response paragraph says the army was “looking into the reports”; despite publication at 16:57 UTC, 59 minutes after the IDF’s post, it does not carry the military’s diversion account. The Hindu is not a party to the conflict.

TRT World headlines the event as “Israeli violence” continuing despite a ceasefire and foregrounds Palestinian officials’ account and the effect on education. It quotes the Education Ministry and reports that the army was “looking into the reports.” Its 13:43 UTC publication preceded the IDF post by 2 hours 15 minutes, so that version does not carry the later diversion statement. TRT World is not a party to the conflict.

Al Jazeera leads with eight deaths across Gaza and uses an “Attacks on education” subheading; it foregrounds correspondent Hani Mahmoud’s on-scene account and calls the three campus dead security guards. Its 15:40 UTC publication preceded the IDF post by 18 minutes, so it does not include that statement. Al Jazeera is not a party; the linked IDF statement is a belligerent’s own primary account, not an independent outlet.

The record so far

For the university, the reported toll is three dead and eight wounded in the later drone strike, according to Al-Shifa Hospital. The university sources cited by AFP identified the dead as administrative staff; Al Jazeera called them security guards. An earlier attack on the same campus wounded seven female students, according to Al Jazeera. The university’s account of two strikes that day and the separate casualty descriptions make it important to keep those incidents and figures distinct rather than add them into a single total.

The central unresolved point is attribution: the IDF said it targeted a Hamas military-wing member and diverted a munition, while hospital and university sources reported deaths at the campus. The official post did not identify the people killed or say whether the reported deaths came from the diverted munition. Earlier GenZ NewZ reports on a separate Gaza apartment strike and a Hebron checkpoint attack concern different events; neither verifies the university casualties or the IDF’s target claim.