Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a school in the Al-Tufa neighborhood, east of Gaza City, which was housing displaced people, Reuters reported, citing the director of the "Ash Shifa" hospital, Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmiya.
Most of the dead were children, and several of the wounded were hospitalized, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Services said, adding that they were only able to recover the bodies after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs coordinated with Israeli forces.
The Israeli army said in response to the attack that several suspicious individuals had been identified in command structures outside the designated ceasefire line and that Israeli forces had opened fire on them. "The Israeli army is aware of the allegations of casualties in the area and the details (of the incident) are being examined," it said in a statement.
The Palestinian armed group "Hamas" described the attack as "a brutal crime" and another violation of the ceasefire agreement.
With the five deaths, the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes has reached 400 since the start of the ceasefire agreement in October, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said.
Israel said Palestinian militants had killed three Israeli soldiers during the same period.