GAZA STRIP: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday at least 27 people were killed in an Israeli strike near a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp.

“The bodies of 27 martyrs were recovered and a large number of wounded,” said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra in a toll AFP was unable to independently verify. AFP footage showed several casualties as crowds of people rushed to help them.

“Children under 10 were simply buying from the canteen and were cut into pieces,” cried a woman in the school yard.

There was no immediate comment from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which runs the school.

Further south in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza’s civil defence authority said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes.

“The planes struck the whole neighbourhood, they pulled me out from under the rubble,” said Bureij resident Hanan Abdulhadi, 50, with blood running down her face.

Carrying his wounded two-year-old son, resident Mohammed Karajeh, 27, said “the whole house fell on us” with more than 20 homes destroyed.

Gaza’s health ministry said 9,061 people have been killed in nearly four weeks of Israeli strikes and the recent ground assault.

Israeli officials said around 1,400 people were killed in Israel when Hamas crossed from Gaza and attacked border communities and military posts on October 7, sparking the war.