At least 22 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a former school building in Gaza City, Palestinian authorities said Saturday.
At least 30 people were injured, including women and children, Gaza’s health authority said, adding that displaced people were said to be sheltering in the building.
The Israeli military said it had attacked a Hamas command center believed to be located in the building.
Israeli forces had taken extensive measures to limit the risks to civilians ahead of the attack, it said. The Hamas fighters who were targeted were responsible for carrying out attacks on Israel, it said.
According to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Civil Defense, volunteers are currently trying to extract victims from the rubble of the building, so the death toll could rise further, the report said.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa had previously reported that an Israeli attack had been carried out on a former school building in the same neighborhood, in which dozens of people were injured.
The Israeli military said upon request that it was not aware of a second such attack in the area.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims of either party.
According to the Israeli army (IDF), fighting is also continuing in southern Gaza.
“Over the past day, forces located weapons, neutralized armed terrorists and dismantled much of the terrorist infrastructure in the area,” the report said.
The Israeli air force has now struck 20 targets in the Gaza Strip, the army said. In the southern city of Rafah, Israeli drones killed gunmen who robbed a truck carrying humanitarian aid and then fled.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, five of its employees were killed in an Israeli attack on a medical equipment warehouse in the southern coastal region. When asked, the Israeli military said it would investigate the reports.
According to local health authorities in Gaza, at least 41,391 people have been killed in the Palestinian territories since the start of the war following the October 7 attacks.
That day, Palestinian militants led by Hamas and an extremist group swept through communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and driving another 250 back to Gaza.
Negotiations over a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and the return of the remaining hostages, brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt, have been stalled for months.
