GAZA: Gaza’s civil defence agency has said an Israeli strike hit a school in Gaza City, killing 40 people, while the Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas command centre.

“Forty martyrs and dozens wounded after the Israeli bombing of the Al-Taba’een school in the Al-Sahaba area in Gaza City,” agency spokesman Mahmoud Basal said in a post on Telegram.

Basal described the incident as “a horrific massacre”, with some bodies catching fire. “The crews are trying to control the fire to retrieve the bodies of the martyrs and rescue the wounded,” he said.

Israel’s army said Saturday it had “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the Al-Taba’een school”.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reports that the Israeli army released an extensive statement that said they used precise munitions.

This was a combined attack with the internal security service known as the Shin Bet and they are saying they used precise intelligence in order to minimise the harm to civilians, Salhut says.

“This is a pattern that is conducted by the Israeli army in order to justify its attacks on civilian infrastructure in order to target and kill civilians all around Gaza,” the report says.

“We have been seeing this in northern Gaza over the last week where at least four schools have been attacked under this same claim by the Israeli army that Hamas is using these schools for military and operational purposes,” Salhut adds.

“We have heard this time and time again. But not once, in the 10 months of this war, have we ever seen proof or evidence of these claims,” the report states.