At least 30 people have died after Israeli airstrikes hit a school being used by displaced people in central Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The victims had been sheltering at a girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah and were taken to Al Aqsa hospital for treatment following the strike on Saturday.
The Israel Defence Forces claimed the strike had targeted a Hamas command and control centre used to store weapons and plan attacks.
It said militants “used the compound as a hiding place to direct and plan numerous attacks against IDF troops” and “developed and stored large quantities of weapons inside.”
Civil defence workers in Gaza said that thousands were sheltering in the school, which also contained a medical site.
A journalist at the Associated Press reported seeing an ambulance rushing through a dusty road as a crowd ran in the opposite direction, with an injured man lying in a stretcher on the ground.
A body covered with a blanket and a dead toddler lay inside the ambulance, the journalist said.
Classrooms inside the school were in ruins and people were seen searching for victims under the rubble, they added.
The strike came as negotiators from Israel and Gaza prepared to meet international mediators to discuss a proposed ceasefire.
US officials have indicated that Israel and Hamas agree on the basic framework of a three-phase deal.
But in a speech given to the US Congress earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead until Israel achieved “total victory”.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that Mr Netanyahu's reception from supporters in the US constituted a "green light" to continue Israel's offensive.
"Every time the occupation bombs a school that shelters displaced persons, we see only some condemnations and denunciations that will not force the occupation to stop its bloody aggression," he said.
At least 39,258 Palestinians have been killed and 90,589 injured in Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The war began when Hamas militants broke through the border in southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.
