At least 40 people, mainly women and children, have been killed after an Israeli air attack on an UN-run school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza.

Al Jazeera reports that thousands were sheltering at al-Sardi school, which is linked to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Hamas has condemned the predawn attack as a “horrible massacre”.

BBC News reports that Israel’s military said it had “conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound” in the school and killed many of the 20 to 30 fighters it believed were inside.