An Israeli air strike has hit a United Nations-run school in northern Gaza serving as a shelter as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met regional Arab leaders to discuss how to contain the conflict.

Palestinian witnesses said Israel hit Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia, where thousands of evacuees were living in the morning.

At least 15 people died and dozens more were wounded, Gaza health ministry official Mohammad Abu Selmeyah said.

Reuters footage of the aftermath showed broken furniture and other belongings lying on the ground, patches of blood and people crying.

“I was standing here when three bombings happened, I carried a body and another decapitated body with my own hands,” a young boy said in video obtained by Reuters, crying in despair.

“God will take my vengeance.”

Nearby, a resident comforted a woman in shock. One man asked angrily: “Since when has it become normal to strike shelters? This is so unfair.”

Juliette Touma, director of communication for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), confirmed to Reuters that the UN-run school, which is in the Gaza City area, had been hit.

Women and children

She said there were children among the casualties but that UNRWA had not yet been able to verify the exact death toll.

“At least one strike hit the schoolyard where there were tents for displaced families. Another strike hit inside the school where women were baking bread,” Touma said by phone.

A series of reported air strikes over the past week have devastated parts of the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest of several refugee settlements in Gaza, killing at least 195 people, according to Palestinian authorities.

The ministry of health in Gaza said another Israeli missile strike killed two women at the door of the Nasser Children Hospital.

Israel’s ground forces encircled Gaza City on Thursday after stepping up a bombing campaign it says aims at wiping out Hamas, after the militant group which runs Gaza killed 1400 people and took more than 240 hostage in an October 7 assault in southern Israel.

Gaza health officials said on Saturday that 9488 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli assault.

Israel last month ordered all civilians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City where it says Hamas militants are hiding in tunnels, and head to the south of the enclave.

It has continued to bomb the whole enclave, saying the militants are hiding among civilians, and many people have stayed in the north, where they say they now feel trapped.

‘Head south’

The military said it would enable Palestinians to travel on a main Gaza Strip highway, the Salah a-Din road, during a three-hour window on Saturday afternoon.

“If you care about yourself and your loved ones, heed our instruction to head south,” it said in a social media post in Arabic.

Several residents told Reuters they were too afraid to use the road due to Israeli forces and many posted warnings on social media that Israeli tanks were stationed on it.

Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told Blinken at the meeting in Amman with the Saudi, Qatari, Emirati and Egyptian foreign ministers that efforts to mediate the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were complicated by the continued bombardment of the enclave, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

—AAP