Gazans say 22 people, mostly women and children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a school

In a statement released to media, the Gaza government called the attack a “horrific massacre” and said 16 of the victims were orphaned children and widowed women who had found shelter in the school.

The statement said the victims came to the school “to receive a small amount of money (support for orphans) with which they could buy necessary things amidst the genocide carried out by the occupiers for almost a year.

“However, the occupation rockets were waiting for them, killing them and turning them into dismembered bodies.”

However, IDF officials claimed that Hamas militants were using the school as a command and control complex.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued a statement accusing Hamas of using the site to plan and carry out “terrorist” operations against Israel and its armed forces.

The latest deaths come at a time when negotiations on a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and the return of remaining Israeli hostages have stalled and fears of the conflict spreading across the Middle East have grown.

The IDF said on Saturday that some 180 targets and thousands of rocket launchers controlled by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah participated in a series of airstrikes targeting “thousands of rocket launchers that were ready to be fired at an instant toward Israeli territory.”

The IDF also said it had struck some areas in southern Lebanon with artillery.

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