Many casualties feared in Israeli strike near school housing displaced Gazans

Several Palestinians were killed and injured in an Israeli airstrike near a school housing displaced people in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to witnesses.

Fighter jets carried out a raid near the entrance of Al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, witnesses said.

The attack has caused a state of panic and fear among thousands of displaced people inside the school, they added.

The Health Ministry has yet to issue an exact death toll from the attack.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced across the Gaza Strip amid a deadly offensive launched by Israel following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 78,000 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave's population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.