Israel’s army said on Friday it had killed 17 militants the day before in an air strike on a UN school in central Gaza, raising its previous toll from nine, AFP reports.

Thursday’s Israeli strike hit a school operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza where thousands of displaced people were sheltering.

The nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said that at least 37 people were killed in the strike.

“Since the targeted strike the (Israeli army) has confirmed the identity of 17 terrorists that were operating from the school,” the military said in a statement.

The Gaza media office accused the Israeli army of spreading “false information”, claiming that three people presented as dead by Israel were still alive and that at least two had been killed in other strikes, adding the attack on the school had also killed 14 children.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari had said on Thursday that nine militants were killed when fighter jets attacked three classrooms in the school.

About 30 fighters from Islamic Jihad and Hamas were hiding there, he said.