GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced people in the Jabalia camp of northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.
Fires broke out in the tents of the displaced individuals in the schoolyard because of the bombing. Some casualties were transferred to a hospital in northern Gaza, while ambulance teams were unable to reach the people in the targeted school, according to WAFA.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the Israeli Air Force conducted a "precise strike" on an operational meeting point for Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in northern Gaza.
The militants were operating inside a command and control center embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Abu Hassan School, the IDF said.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 42,438, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Thursday. ■
