At least 27 people, including children, have been reported killed in an Israeli airstrike at a UN school in Gaza.
The school provides shelter to displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed Hamas fighters who participated in the October 7 attack against Israel were housed in a compound in the facility.
IDF said, in a statement, that it conducted a “precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an Unrwa school in the area of Nuseirat” and that it took measures to “reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians”.
“The command and control center was used as a staging ground for multiple attacks on IDF troops located in Gaza’s central corridor in recent weeks,” the IDF said.
The Hamas media office has, however, denied the presence of the organisation’s command post in the school facility, accusing Israel of committing a “horrific massacre”.
“The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,” Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters.
In February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) put the casualties from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip at over 30,000 — a large majority of whom are women and children.
It also said over 70,000 Palestinians have been injured.
The casualty figure on Israel’s end is over 1,000.
