ANKARA

At least 22 Palestinians, including 13 children, were killed and several others injured on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, according to the government media office in the enclave.

In a statement, the office stated that six women and an unborn child were also among those killed in the strike.

"During the horrific massacre, the occupation killed 16 from among the orphaned children and the widowed women whose fathers and husbands were killed in previous Israeli airstrikes," it noted.

The statement said the victims had come to the school "to receive a small amount of money (orphan sponsorship) so they could buy their needs amid the genocide being waged by the occupation for nearly a year.

"However, the occupation's missiles were waiting for them, killing them and turning them into dismembered bodies."

It added that 30 others, including nine children, were also injured in the attack.

The media office said that 181 centers for displaced individuals have been targeted by Israeli forces since the beginning of the war on Gaza.

Separately, a medical source at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City told Anadolu that the victims were brought to the hospital following the strike on the school, which was housing hundreds of displaced families.

Witnesses reported that the Israeli airstrike hit the Asqoula area in the Zeitoun neighborhood, causing significant casualties among those seeking refuge in the school.

The Israeli army has acknowledged that it targeted the school, claiming it was being used by Hamas as a “command and control center.”

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last October despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 41,400 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and over 95,700 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi and Rania Abu Shamala