An Israeli air strike on a UN school packed with displaced Palestinians in central Gaza has reportedly killed at least 35 people.

According to the BBC News a warplane fired two missiles at classrooms on the top floor of the school in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel’s military says it “conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound” in the school and killed many of the 20 to 30 fighters it believed were inside.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office denied the claim and accused Israel of carrying out a “horrific massacre”.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), which runs the school, described the incident as "horrific" and said the claim that armed groups might have been inside a shelter was "shocking" but could not be confirmed.

Dead and wounded people were rushed to the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, which has been overwhelmed since the Israeli military began a new ground operation against Hamas in central Gaza this week.

Source: BBC News