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, AFP reports.

“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”.