ISRAELI forces killed at least 15 Palestinians today when they stormed a school in Gaza being used as shelter for displaced people, according to local sources.

Eyewitnesses told reporters from the Al Jazeera network that scores of other people were injured during the attack on the Khalil Oweida School in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoon.

This came a day after an Israeli air strike hit another school in Gaza City killing at least seven people.

Reporting from central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said many of those inside the Khalil Oweida school were left with “severe injuries” after the latest Israeli killing spree.

He said: “They have nowhere to go because the Israeli military forces are encircling the area with tanks and armoured vehicles, and hammering the school with heavy artillery.”

Amongst those killed were a family of four, including two children, after the classroom where they were sheltering in reportedly took a direct hit from artillery fire.

Mr Mahmoud added: “Many of the injured are in the courtyard of the school and inside the other classrooms. They can’t get any treatment because none of the hospitals in Beit Hanoon are operational.” 

There was no prior warning by the Israelis that they were intending to attack the school.

A day earlier there was another attack on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City.

An attack on the Majda Wasilla school killed at least seven people, including a woman and her baby, Palestinian medical officials said.

Ataf Saadat, a woman sheltering in the school, said the baby killed was two days old. 

She said: “There were those who were burned, and those who were cut up, and the rubble was on top of them.”

Israel’s military said in a statement that it had struck Hamas fighters at a command centre in a compound previously used as a school.

Also on Saturday four people were killed in an air strike on a tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah, according to officials at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Activists in Israel are continuing to press for a truce that includes a deal to swap the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 for Palestinian prisoners.