The Palestinian Red Crescent said an Israeli air strike on a Gaza school killed at least 28 people Thursday, while the Israeli military reported it struck a Hamas command centre.
"Palestine Red Crescent teams responded to 28 fatalities and 54 injuries following the Israeli occupation army's targeting of Rafida School," the organisation said, referring to a school in Deir el-Balah.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry issued the same death toll in a statement.
The Israeli army said in a statement the strike targeted Palestinian combatants operating from a command-and-control centre "embedded inside a compound that previously served as the (Rafida) School."
It did not give a toll but said the command-and-control centre was used "to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF (army) troops and the State of Israel."
According to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought, eight women and a child were among those killed in the Israeli strike. It said several other people were wounded.
An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.
“We appeal to the world. We are dying!” one man screamed.
Witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamas-run police who provide security. They said there were no police in the room at the time.
Thursday's attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than a year.
On September 26, at least 15 people were killed in another school-turned-shelter strike in northern Gaza's Jabalia camp, according to Gaza civil defence agency.
The Israeli military is currently engaged in an intense operation in Jabaliya.
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 42,065 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 in the Hamas-run territory.
The United Nations has acknowledged the figures to be reliable.
The October 7 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 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.
(With inputs from AFP and AP)