"Thirty-five die' in Israeli strike on UN school

AT LEAST 35 people died when Israel blasted a United Nations school in a refugee base packed with hundreds of civilians.

- Mark Reynolds

Dozens more were killed in separate strikes in central Gaza yesterday, local reports said.

Israel's military said it made a "targeted" attack on the school in the Nuseirat camp, which it said housed a "Hamas compound".

Hamas accused the Jewish state of committing a "horrific massacre".

The major new push against the terror group in the centre of the wartorn Gaza Strip comes in the face of renewed efforts by the US to secure a lasting ceasefire.

Israel's military confirmed the strike on the school, which was housing displaced Palestinians, before key talks between American and Qatari mediators to try to finalise a peace deal.

Local sources said an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at classrooms on the top floor of the school.

Ambulances and rescue teams were seen rushing the wounded and dead to a nearby hospital.

Footage showed destroyed classrooms and bodies wrapped in shrouds at a mortuary.

Brutal

In one video, an injured woman screams: "Enough war! We have been displaced dozens of times.

"They killed our children while they were sleeping." Hamas media office director Ismail al-Thawabta denied the school had a hidden terror command post.