Dec 19 (Reuters) – Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a school sheltering displaced people in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, the head of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Mohamed Abu Selmia, told Reuters on Friday.
The Palestinian civil emergency service said in a statement that most of the killed were children, and added that a number of wounded had been transferred to hospitals for treatment.
The civil emergency service said they were only able to recover the bodies after the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs coordinated with the Israelis.
The Israel Defense Forces said, in relation to the attack, that a number of what it said were suspicious individuals had been identified in command structures outside the designated ceasefire line, and its troops fired at them.
“The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details are under review”, the Israeli military said in a statement.
Palestinian militant group Hamas called the attack a “brutal crime” and another violation of the ceasefire agreement.
With those five killed, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire rose to 400 since the ceasefire began in October, according to the health ministry.
Israel has said three of its soldiers have been killed by Palestinian militants in Gaza over the same period.
(Reporting by Nidal Al Mughrabi, Writing by Ahmed Tolba; Editing by David Gregorio and Rosalba O’Brien)
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