An Israeli air strike on a UN school in central Gaza, which was packed with hundreds of displaced people, has resulted in at least 27 deaths, according to local officials.
The Israeli military stated that the strike targeted a “Hamas compound” within the UN school.
Local journalists informed the BBC that an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at classrooms on the top floor of the school located in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Hamas media office has condemned the attack, describing it as a “horrific massacre.”
Ambulances and rescue teams have been transporting the wounded and deceased to a nearby hospital.
Footage on social media displays destroyed classrooms and bodies wrapped in shrouds at a morgue.
“Enough war! We have been displaced dozens of times. They killed our children while they were sleeping,” a woman injured in the attack screamed in one video.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas media office, rejected Israel’s claims that the UN school had hidden a Hamas command post.
“The occupation uses … false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,” he told Reuters news agency.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said jets had conducted a “precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an Unrwa school in the area of Nuseirat”.
The Israeli military stated that it targeted and killed Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terrorists” involved in the 7 October attack on southern Israel, during which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Since then, at least 36,580 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed to have taken measures before the air strike to “reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians.”
Mass graves and body bags: al-Shifa hospital after Israel withdrew its forces
Earlier, the Israeli military announced it had gained “operational control” over eastern areas of the Bureij refugee camp and the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, amidst reports of dozens of Palestinian casualties.
Residents reported intense bombardment, and the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) stated that at least 70 bodies, mostly women and children, had been brought to a local hospital since Tuesday.
MSF described the situation at Deir al-Balah’s al-Aqsa hospital, one of the few remaining functional health facilities in central Gaza, as “apocalyptic.”