At least 22 people have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a UN-run school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza, local medics and the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency say.

The deadly strike on the school in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, killed one child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Witnesses, speaking anonymously, said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting aid group representatives in a room normally used by Hamas-run police. No police were present at the time.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 15 people were killed, but it did not say how many could have been militants. A few hours later, news broke that a separate Israeli operation in southern Gaza,