A member of civil defence works to retrieve bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, Tuesday. Reuters

At least 10 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced families west of Gaza City, the enclave's civil defence authorities said.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas base embedded inside the school.

Hamas denies Israeli allegations that it uses schools and hospitals for military purposes.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Tuesday that it recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that started the war in Gaza, as US and Arab mediators tried to advance an agreement to halt the fighting and release scores of other fighter-held captives.

The military said its forces recovered the bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, without saying when or how the six died. A forum for hostage families said they were kidnapped alive. Hamas says some captives have been killed and wounded in Israeli airstrikes.

Agencies