"Three martyrs and more than 20 wounded people were retrieved after an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at a prayer room and a classroom at the Amr Ibn al-Aas School, where refugees were sheltering in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in northern Gaza City," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP.
The Israeli military said it conducted a "precise strike" at the school.
The strike targeted "terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control centre... embedded inside a compound that previously served as Amr Ibn al-Aas school," the military said in a statement.
A large crowd gathered outside the building in the aftermath of the strike, picking their way over rubble as emergency workers tried to help the wounded, AFPTV footage showed.
Displaced Gazan Abd Arooq said the school had served as a shelter for more than 2,000 people.
"We don't know where to go. We are in the street," he said.
"There is no sanctity for mosques, schools or even the houses we live in."
In recent months, Israeli forces have struck several schools that were housing displaced Palestinians, many of them in Gaza City, saying the strikes targeted Hamas militants.
Tens of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge in schools since the war in Gaza, which entered its 12th month on Saturday, broke out following Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians and some hostages killed in captivity, according to official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 40,939 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
United Nations, family call for inquiry into U.S. woman's West Bank shooting death
Washington DC (UPI) Sep 7, 2024 -
The United Nations is now calling for a "full investigation" into the death of a 26-year-old American woman who was shot by Israeli forces during a demonstration in the West Bank earlier this week.
In a statement issued Saturday, the family of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi also called for an independent investigation into the recent university graduate.
"We welcome the White House's statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur's killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate," the family said in the statement.
"We call on President (Joe) Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties."
In a regular briefing Friday, U.N. Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters he hadn't been briefed on the case but still supported an inquiry.
"I had not heard of this case. I can tell you that we, of course, we would want to see a full investigation of the circumstances and that people should be held accountable. And again, civilians must be protected at all times," Dujarric told reporters during his daily media availability.
"I don't have enough information. First I've heard here of it, I will get back to you," he said to a follow-up question, specifically asking if the United Nations condemns the shooting death.
Eygi, an American-Turkish citizen, died after being shot in the head on the West Bank by Israeli Defense Forces soldiers during a weekly demonstration.
The recent University of Washington graduate was attending a weekly protest against settlement expansions in the West Bank in Beita, south of Nablus.
Israeli forces later confirmed their members fired shots into a crowd but said the use of force was a defensive action.
Eygi, who was born in Turkey, was hit in the head and rushed to a local hospital where she later died.
"We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident," White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Friday.
The International Solidarity Movement said 17 Palestinian protesters was been slain in Beitan since 2020.
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