Dozens of Palestinians were also injured in the shelling of a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, the government press office said.
At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack on a United Nations-run school housing displaced people in the Gaza Strip, the Gaza Government Media Office reported, as Israel continues to attack the besieged coastal territory.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Government Media Office said more than 75 people were also injured in the attack on the al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
“We condemn the Israeli occupation [for] “They are committing these constant crimes and massacres against civilians, children and women,” he said.
The Nuseirat facility, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is the latest school to be bombed by the Israeli military since the Gaza war began in early October.
At least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 and the besieged enclave is facing severe shortages of food, water, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.
On Saturday, dozens of Palestinians, including five journalists, were killed when the Israeli army intensified its bombardment of the territory.
Videos from the scene of the attack on the UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat showed twisted metal in the collapsed building. A child could be seen sifting through pools of blood on the ground.
Footage filmed at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah and verified by Al Jazeera's Sanad agency also showed children and young people being rushed out of ambulances.
Among them was a girl with a bandaged arm, another with a bloody face and a boy with a bandage on his head. Emergency crews also tried to cover two bodies that were rushed to the medical complex.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement that 50 wounded Palestinians were taken to hospital.
In a statement shared on social media Saturday night, the Israeli military said its air force “attacked a number of terrorists” in the area of the al-Jaouni school.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said hundreds of Palestinian families had sought refuge at the school after being forced to flee Israeli shelling elsewhere in Gaza.
Families “chose the middle zone” [of the Gaza Strip] “Because the Israeli forces said that the middle zone is a safe zone,” Khoudary said.
“Everyone in the Gaza Strip feels that they are not safe, wherever they go.”
Last month, an Israeli attack on a UN-linked school, also in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens more, according to local authorities.
Musab, a 17-year-old survivor of the early June bombing of UNRWA's Nuseirat Boys Preparatory School, told the UN agency that his father died after “missiles fell” on the family.
“Concrete slabs fell on us and suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by dead and wounded people. All of my family members were injured or killed,” Musab said in a testimony shared by UNRWA.
“We were sleeping and at 2am we were hit by missiles. They pulled us out from under the rubble and all we saw was shrapnel, debris and dust. I am in shock and cannot understand that my father is dead! How are we going to live?”
