Dozens of people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on two schools in Gaza, Palestinian rescue workers and news organizations said.
Rescue workers said some of the dead were displaced people staying in the schools.
The Israeli military (IDF) confirmed the attack, saying it targeted Hamas “command and control centers” in two schools in Gaza City.
The strikes marked the third time in a week that schools in Gaza have been hit by Israeli attacks.
The Israeli military said: “The schools were used by the Hamas al-Furqan battalion as hideouts for terrorist operatives and as command centers to plan and carry out attacks against Israeli forces and the State of Israel.”
Footage on social media shows bodies inside one of the schools as rescuers evacuate victims, including children.
Palestinian media reported that at least 30 people were killed in the strikes. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said most of the dead were women and children.
He added that more people are believed to be buried under the rubble.
The attack on the al-Nasr and Hassan Salama schools came on the day of an attack on a camp for displaced people in a hospital in central Gaza, which reportedly killed at least five people.
On Saturday, an airstrike on the Hamama school in Gaza City reportedly killed at least 17 people.
A few days earlier, an attack on the Dalal al-Mughrabi school left 15 people dead, officials said.
The Israeli military says it tries to minimize the risk to civilians during strikes, but the Palestinian Civil Defense described Sunday’s attacks as “a massacre.”
In a separate development on Sunday morning, two people were killed in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Holon. The Palestinian attacker was later shot dead, police said.
The war between Israel and Gaza began on October 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage back to Gaza.
The attack sparked a massive Israeli military response, killing at least 39,480 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
