Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that Israeli strikes on a school sheltering displaced people in the Palestinian territory killed 31 people and wounded dozens, with Israel saying it had targeted Hamas fighters.

Gaza civil defence media officer Ahmad Radwan told AFP that a total of 31 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli strikes “on a school sheltering displaced persons” in the Bureij refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said in a statement that its forces had struck a “Hamas command and control centre in the central Gaza Strip” which was used “to store weapons”.

The strikes came as Israel drew international condemnation on Tuesday over its plans for an expanded Gaza offensive, as the country’s far-right finance minister called for the Palestinian territory to be “destroyed”.