More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to officials in the enclave.
Three Israeli bombs hit al-Tabin school, located in the Daraj district, Gaza’s civil defence agency said of the attack on Saturday, which it described as a “horrific massacre”.
Women, children and the elderly are reported to be among the dead and the toll was expected to rise. The attack took place while people were performing morning prayers and triggered a fire that ripped through the building.
Ismail al-Thawabta, the head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army used three bombs weighing 2,000 pounds (907kg) each in its attack.
He said Israel was aware of the presence of displaced people inside the school.
The Israeli military said its air forces struck a “command and control centre” that “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders”.
Without providing evidence, the Israeli military said in a separate statement that it had intelligence indicating there were 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, including senior commanders, operating from the school.
Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked schools used as shelters in Gaza, claiming they are command centres for Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs the territory, to hide fighters and manufacture weapons.
According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 school buildings in Gaza had been directly hit or damaged as of 6 July, with more than a dozen targeted since.
Al-Taba’een school housed more 1,000 people - having recently received dozens of displaced people from the town of Beit Hanoun, after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes.
