ISRAEL targeted a UN school in Gaza that it claims was home to a Hamas base, allegedly killing terrorists involved in the October 7 attack.
Hamas-run media in the war-torn Strip said the overnight blitz killed at least 39 Palestinians seeking shelter in the school.
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Local health officials said five children were also killed, Sky reports.
The IDF said that it “eliminated” several militants when striking the alleged “Hamas compound”.
Israel’s fighter jets hit the top floor of the school run by a United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the UNRWA.
It comes after Israel accused UNRWA staff of being involved in the October 7 massacre.
The Hamas-run media office said Israel had committed a “horrific massacre” after the blitz – which hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Strip.
Director Ismail Al-Thawabta said the school was not hiding a Hamas command post.
He claimed the reports of a Hamas compound coming from Israel were used to “justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people”.
An Israeli warplane fired two missiles at the school on Wednesday night, the BBC reports.
Horrific pictures showed the blitzed school with classrooms reduced to rubble as people in UN vests picked through the wreckage.
And haunting images from the ground showed Palestinians mourning those killed in the strike as they lay in body bags on the ground.
The exact death toll is not yet clear.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah said it had received the bodies of “at least 37 martyrs” following the strike.
Meanwhile a Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson told CNN 45 people were killed.
The IDF has yet to provide any evidence suggesting the school was used as a Hamas base.
After Israel said UNRWA staff were involved in the massacre of 1,200 Israelis last October, the UN began investigating.
David Bedein, of Israel’s Centre for Near East Policy, had said that relief agency staff were “involved in actual murder — wielding guns and killing people”.
Twelve Gaza-based staff were then sacked but Bedein claimed they were just the “tip of the iceberg”.
In late April UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said several of the 12 cases into the 12 members of staff were closed due to lack of evidence from Israel.
The UN-funded agency was created to boost Palestinian education, health care, social services and living standards.
Israel’s military confirmed the hit this morning on X, writing: “Eliminated: several Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who embedded themselves inside of an UNRWA school.
“IAF fighter jets conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside the school in the area of Nuseirat.
“These terrorists belonged to the Nukhba Forces and participated in the Oct. 7 massacre.
“Before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information.”
Israeli military estimates that between 20 and 30 Hamas militants were inside the school when it was struck, The Times of Israel reports.
The UN says over 35,000 people have been killed inside Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7.
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