At least 27 killed in Israeli strike on school turned shelter in Gaza

ITV News Correspondent Peter Smith reports from Israel after a school in Gaza was hit in an Israeli strike

Warning: This article contains distressing details and images

At least 27 people, including a child, have been killed by an Israeli strike on a school sheltering those displaced in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.

Israel said that it conducted a precise strike targeting a militant command and control centre located in a school in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

However, Israel has not provided evidence to support its claims.

Witnesses said the strike happened while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group on Thursday.

The meeting normally takes place in a room used by Hamas-run police who provide security, but there were no police present at the time of the strike.

Palestinians search for the remains of their relatives killed. Credit: AP

The Palestinian branch of Terre des Hommes, a Swiss aid group, said in a statement that members of its children’s health teams were killed.

“There were no militants. There was no Hamas,” said Iftikhar Hamouda, who had fled from northern Gaza earlier in the war.

“We headed to tents. They bombed the tents... In the streets, they bombed us. In the markets, they bombed us. In the schools, they bombed us.

“Where should we go?”

Throughout the war, Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters accusing militants of hiding in them.

Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, following an attack by Hamas on October 7 last year.

Women and children are believed to make up more than half of those killed in Gaza.

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Hamas' attack on Israel last year saw 1,200 people, mostly civilians, killed, and another 250 abducted. About 100 people are still being held captive inside Gaza.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally, Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has so far killed about 2,100 people in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday the country will "continue to fight" as its military presses on battling Iran-backed militant groups on several fronts.

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