Deadly strike at Gaza school kills 30 Palestinians

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike on a school killed 30 people on Saturday.

The latest strike on a school in Gaza came after a days-long military operation further south that killed around 170, said emergency services there.

The health ministry reported "30 martyrs and more than 100 wounded" in the strike on Khadija school in the central Deir Al Balah area.

Israel's military said Palestinian fighters were using the compound as a "hiding place".

Palestinians injured during an Israeli airstrike ride on the back of a cart in Deir Al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Saturday. AFP

The latest Gaza strike, which Israel said targeted "terrorists", was at least the eighth time since July 6 a school has been hit.

The strikes have killed more than 100 people, based on figures given by the health ministry and a hospital source.

With most of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people displaced at least once during the war started by Hamas's October 7 attack, many have sought refuge in school buildings including the one hit on Saturday.

Further south, in the Khan Yunis city area, around 170 people have been killed "and hundreds wounded" in an Israeli operation since Monday, Gaza's civil defence agency said.

People carry a person injured during an Israeli strike on the Khadija school in Gaza Strip on Saturday. AFP

It issued the toll after the military warned of new operations in the Khan Yunis area, where troops had earlier recovered the bodies of five Israelis killed during the October 7 attack and held in Gaza since.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,258 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not provide details of civilian and fighters deaths.

Egyptian state-linked media said Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators are to meet with Israeli negotiators in the latest push for a Gaza truce, which critics of Netanyahu have accused him of blocking.

The latest mediation efforts have focused on a ceasefire and hostage release accompanied by increased aid flows into besieged Gaza and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Agence France-Presse