An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school compound housing displaced families killed around 100 people, the Hamas-run Gaza government said on Saturday, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants there and cast doubt on the death toll.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered on the ground and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets on the floor.
Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood and burnt mattresses and a child’s doll among the debris.
In another part of the Tabeen school complex in Gaza City, men prayed over a dozen body bags laid out on the ground.
The Hamas-run media office said in a statement that the strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing dawn prayers, leading to many casualties.
“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” said Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, in a televised news conference.
Around 350 families had been sheltering at the compound, Bassal said.
Two floors were hit, the upper floor housing families, including women and children, and the lower floor that was used as a mosque.
The Gaza health ministry has so far not provided casualty details.
In a statement in Hebrew the Israeli military said the death toll was inflated. It said around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating at the site.
“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.
“According to an initial review, the numbers published by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza, do not align with the information held by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike,” Shoshani said.