GAZA CITY, Palestine

Israel's airstrike on Al-Tab'een School in Gaza City killed three families whose members are believed to have "disintegrated" due to the intensity of the explosions, the Gaza media office said Sunday.

At least 100 people were killed and several injured Saturday when Israeli aircraft targeted Palestinians performing fajr (dawn) prayers at the school in the Al-Daraj neighborhood.

The Israeli military claimed it killed 19 fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the attack, but the two groups strongly denied this.

"The Israeli targeting resulted in the complete loss of 3 families whose bodies have not been found so far,” the media office said in a statement.

"It seems that the bodies of these three families were completely disintegrated due to the intensity (of the explosions) of the large, internationally banned bombs dropped by the occupying army on the displaced people in the school, which suggests that the number of martyrs may exceed 108."

Concerning Israel's claim that armed militants were inside the school, the media office confirmed that this is a "false narrative with no basis in fact."

"Those who were inside the school were civilians, (including) women and children, and the occupying army has completely failed to prove the validity of its fabricated and false narrative,” it added.

The office noted that "the occupation has disseminated misleading information and fictitious narratives about the massacre, and the names it published include individuals who were martyred elsewhere or on different dates."

It stressed that those killed in the massacre were civilians and displaced individuals, including university professors and government employees, none of whom had any "military connections or were armed, as claimed by the occupation."

The media office called on the UN and the international community to "form international investigation committees to visit the Gaza Strip and inspect the shelters and especially the schools, and to verify the damning ground realities that debunk the occupation's narrative and lies."

It held Israel and the US "fully responsible for these ongoing massacres against civilians, which claim the lives of children, women and displaced people."

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed nearly 39,800 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,000 others, according to local health authorities.

More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala