GAZA STRIP: Civil defence rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike Thursday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least seven people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre.

The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “seven martyrs, including children, and many wounded following an Israeli missile attack that targeted Al-Faluja school in Jabalia camp in north Gaza”.

The military said it carried out “precise strikes” targeting Hamas operating inside what it said was a command-and-control centre at the Al-Faluja school.

Gaza: over 41,000 Palestinians killed, farmland, schools destroyed

AFP was unable to immediately verify what was targeted, and the military statement did not provide information on casualties.

Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter – a charge denied by Hamas.

At least 41,495 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in the territory.

The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.