The Palestinian interior ministry says several displaced people who had sheltered at a church compound in the Gaza Strip were killed and injured after an Israeli strike hit on late Thursday, AFP reports.

It said an Israeli strike left a “large number of martyrs and injured” at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church.

Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the place of worship where many Gaza residents had taken refuge as the war raged in the Palestinian enclave.

They said the strike damaged the facade of the church and caused an adjacent building to collapse, adding that many injured people were evacuated to hospital. The Israeli army, when contacted, told AFP it was checking the reported strike.