Dozens of people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter, according to Hamas officials.

The Israeli military acknowledged a strike, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school.

Officials at Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said more than 60 people were killed in the strike on the Tabeen school. A further 47 people were said to be injured.

If confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest strikes in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

The facility, like almost all of Gaza's schools, has been used as a shelter for people who have been forced to flee their homes by the war.

The strike hit without warning in the early morning before sunrise as people were praying at a mosque inside the school, witness Abu Anas told the Associated Press.

An elderly man sits amid the rubble inside a school used as a temporary shelter AFP via Getty Images

"There were people praying, there were people washing and there were people upstairs sleeping, including children, women and old people," he said. 

"The missile fell on them without warning. The first missile, and the second. We recovered them as body parts."

Three missiles ripped through the school and the mosque inside, where about 6,000 displaced people were taking shelter from the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense first responders.

Many of the casualties were women and children, he said.

Read More

On Saturday, the Israeli military said the school was located next to a mosque serving as a shelter for Gaza City residents.

According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 schools in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged in the war as of July 6. 

In June, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials.

Israel has blamed the civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the group endangers noncombatants by using schools and residential neighbourhoods as bases for operations and attacks.

The strike came as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for the two parties to achieve a cease-fire agreement that could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of top Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. 

The war was triggered by Hamas' October 7 attack, in which militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 others.

More than 1.9 million of Gaza's pre-war population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.