An Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced people in central Gaza has killed at least 17 people, including a number of children, according to Palestinian medical officials.
At least 42 people were also injured in the attack at the Nuseirat camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas in a command and control centre inside the school, without providing evidence. It said in a statement its air force “conducted a strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating inside a command and control centre in the area of Nuseirat.”
It continued: “The command and control centre… was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against [Israeli] troops and the State of Israel.”
Images too graphic to publish from the aftermath of the strike show Gazans trying to clear up, removing dead bodies from destroyed buildings.
The overall death toll in Gaza exceeded 42,800 on Thursday, according to the Gaza health authorities. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to a bloody attack inside Israel on 7 October by Hamas, during which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3m population, often multiple times.
Months of ceasefire negotiations, facilitated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, stalled over the summer. In the meantime, the conflict has spread to Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion more than three weeks ago following a year of intermittent clashes with Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran.
As the US struggles to break the deadlock in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, secretary of state Antony Blinken visited Doha on Thursday for talks with Qatari officials, key mediators in the process, just two weeks before the US presidential election.
Mr Blinken announced another $135m (£104m) in aid to the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has reported “harrowing levels of death, injury, and destruction” in northern Gaza, where Israel has been conducting a major offensive for over two weeks. A hospital in the area says it faces a “catastrophic” shortage of supplies and ambulances are struggling to reach the facility.