At least 16 people have been killed in an attack by the Israeli army on a former school building in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian hospital staff.
Many others were injured in the attack, reported staff at the al-Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the coastal strip.
Internally displaced persons had sought shelter in the building, staff said.
The Israeli army said that it had targeted fighters from the Hamas militant group in the school building.
Measures had been taken beforehand to spare civilians, the army said.
The information from both sides could not be independently verified.
Israel has been trying to destroy Hamas since the widescale terrorist attack in October 2023, which left some 1,200 dead in southern Israeli communities and 250 abducted.
The air and ground offensive has reduced large parts of Gaza to rubble.
According to Hamas authorities, more than 42,800 people have died in the densely populated Palestinian territory, and over 100,000 have been injured. Most of these were civilians, although the figures do not distunguish between armed militants and civilians.
