CAIRO
\nIsrael hit a Gaza school on Thursday with what it described as a targeted airstrike on up to 30 Hamas fighters inside, and a Hamas official said 40 people, including women and children, were killed as they sheltered in the UN site.
\nVideo footage showed Palestinians hauling away bodies after the attack, which took place at a sensitive moment in mediated talks on a ceasefire that would involve releasing prisoners held by Hamas and some of the Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
\nThe United States issued a joint statement with other countries on Thursday calling on Israel and Hamas to make whatever compromises were necessary to finalise a deal after eight months of war in the Gaza Strip.
\nIsmail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office, rejected Israel\u2019s assertion that the UN school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, had hidden a Hamas command post.
\n\u201cThe occupation uses \u2026 false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,\u201d Thawabta told Reuters.
\nIsrael\u2019s military said its fighter jets had carried out a \u201cprecise strike\u201d and circulated satellite photos highlighting two parts of a building where it said the fighters were based. \u201cWe\u2019re very confident in the intelligence,\u201d military spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner said, accusing Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters of deliberately using UN facilities as operational bases.
\nHe said 20-30 fighters were located in the compound, and many of them had been killed, but had no precise details as intelligence assessments were being carried out.
\nAs people at the school cleared rubble from bloodstained classrooms, survivor Huda Abu Dhaher described waking up to the sound of rockets. \u201cPeople\u2019s remains were scattered inside the yard and outside. The gas canister exploded,\u201d she told Reuters.
\n\u201cMy nephew was martyred (killed), he lost his leg and arm, he was a 10-year-old \u2026 This woman\u2019s leg got a fragment in it, her son bled from his mouth and leg, her mother-in-law sustained three injuries.\u201d
\nThe school, run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), was sheltering 6,000 displaced people at the time, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CAIRO Israel hit a Gaza school on Thursday with what it described as a targeted airstrike on up to 30 Hamas fighters inside, and a Hamas official said 40 people, including women and children, were killed as they sheltered in the UN site. Video footage showed Palestinians hauling away bodies after the attack, which took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n