Israeli strikes have killed at least 19 Palestinians, including children at a school in Jabalia, northern Gaza, where displaced people are being housed, a health ministry official said.
The attack also wounded dozens of people, official Medhat Abbas said, adding: “There is no water to put out the fire. There is nothing.”
Victims were transported on carts pulled by animals, carried or picked up in cars at the scene of the bombing to be taken to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, where many lay on the floor of the overwhelmed emergency room.
The attack took place at the UN Relief and Works Agency’s Abu Hussein School, where displaced Palestinians were reportedly sheltering in tents.
The Israeli military has claimed that dozens of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists were at the scene at the time of the attack.
Images show fires in the camp, which was set up in a former school in Jabalia, northern Gaza
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed in a statement that an air force plane had recently carried out a strike based on intelligence.
The report said the strike was carried out in a “targeted and precise manner” on a command and control complex at the site of the former school.
Israeli tanks have also rolled into Jabalia, where Palestinians and UN officials have expressed concern about food and medicine shortages.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday, doctors said.
The death toll in Gaza during the years-long war has surpassed 42,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.