Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills at least 20, locals say

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. An Israeli air strike on a UN school packed with hundreds of displaced people in central Gaza has killed more than 20 people, BBC reports citing local residents.

The Israeli military said it carried out a strike on a UN school that housed a "Hamas compound".

Local journalists told the BBC that an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at classrooms on the top floor of the school in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Hamas media office said at least 27 people were killed, rejecting Israel's claims that the UN school had hidden a Hamas command post.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said jets had conducted a "precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat".

The IDF statement said it had "eliminated" Hamas and Islamic Jihad "terrorists" who took part in the 7 October attack on southern Israel, when around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Almost 36,600 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.