Gaza rescuers say eight dead in Israel strike on school building

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter on Saturday killed eight people, including two children, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.

Bassal said the strike would 30 people, including 19 children, and that the Halwa school housed "thousands of displaced people".

The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility.

It said the air force "conducted a precise strike on terrorists in a command-and-control centre" that had previously served as the Halwa school in Jabaliya.

It said it targeted the premises because "the school had been used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute attacks".

The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than 14 months.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew an international outcry after the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staff were among the 18 reported dead.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.

At least 46,537 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.

The October 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.