An Israeli air strike on a UN school packed with hundreds of displaced people in central Gaza has killed at least 27 people, the BBC reports.
The Israeli military said it carried out a strike on a UN school that housed a “Hamas compound.”
The Hamas media office has accused Israel of committing a “horrific massacre.”
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas media office, rejected Israel’s claims that the UN school had hidden a Hamas command post.
Ambulances and rescue teams have been rushing the wounded and dead to a nearby hospital.
Footage on social media showed destroyed classrooms and bodies wrapped in shrouds at a morgue.
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.”
It said it had killed Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terrorists” who took part in the 7 October attack on southern Israel, when around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 36,580 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The IDF said it had taken steps before the air strike to “reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians.”
