Extract from ABC News
In short:
Around 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a Gazan school, according to local authorities.
Israel's military has confirmed it attacked the school, but claimed it was harbouring Hamas militants.
What's next?
Ceasefire talks between Israel and its adversaries are expected to resume next week.
Around 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens have been wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Daraj district, east of Gaza city, according to Palestinian authorities.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered on the ground and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets.
Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood and burnt mattresses and a child's doll lay among the debris.
Gaza's government media office issued a statement calling the attack a "horrific massacre", adding that the strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing Fajr (dawn) prayers, leading to a large number of casualties.
"So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains," said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence emergency services.
Israel's military, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), disputed the casualty figures, saying they "do not align with the information held by the IDF".
The Gaza health ministry has so far not provided casualty details.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, director-general of the Gaza government media office, said the number of casualties was likely to rise as al-Ahli Hospital, where the wounded were taken, struggled to cope with the influx of patients, "most of which are in severe and critical condition".
He told Al Jazeera News that the Israeli army used three 2,000-pound bombs in its air strike.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Gaza's schools, most of which have stopped functioning since the start of the war 10 months ago.
Gaza government media sources said this school was housing about 250 people, half of them women and children.
The IDF confirmed on X that it had attacked the Al-Tabi'een school in the Daraj neighbourhood, but claimed it was harbouring Hamas militants.
It said it struck a Hamas "command and control centre" that was "embedded" in the school, "which is used as a shelter for the residents of Gaza City".
"The headquarters was used by the terrorists of the terrorist organisation Hamas to hide and from there they planned and promoted terrorist operations against the IDF forces and the citizens of the State of Israel," the IDF said.
"Before the attack, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information."
It did not immediately provide evidence supporting its allegations about the school, but later an Israeli military spokesperson claimed around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating inside it.
"The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility," Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.
He added that casualty figures given by the Hamas-run media office "do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike".
Hamas, meanwhile, denounced the strike as a "horrific crime that constitutes a dangerous escalation", saying it is yet another in a series of unprecedented war crimes and massacres.
It also accused the United States of being complicit by continuing to support Israel.
Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas's political office, said in a statement that the dead did not include a "single combatant".
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also urged Washington to put an end to the "blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly".
Ceasefire talks to resume next week
The air strike on the Gaza school came as the United States, an ally of Israel that has sent extra warships and jets to the region, urged both Iran and Israel to avoid escalating tensions between the two regional powers.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in a phone call on Friday that an escalation in the Middle East was "in no party's interest".
There are fears Israel's war in Gaza could develop into a broader Middle East conflict after the recent killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehan and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
Both attacks drew threats of retaliation against Israel, but Iran and Hezbollah are yet to carry out any major strikes against Israeli targets in response.
Iran has claimed that Israel wants to spread war in the Middle East, while Hamas officials, as well as some analysts and critics in Israel, have said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prolonged the fighting in Gaza for political gain.
Mr Blinken said a ceasefire agreement could result in the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and "create the conditions for broader regional stability", the State Department said.
President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal in an address on May 31, which was later endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.
Washington and regional mediators have since tried arranging the Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal, but have consistently run into obstacles.
There has been only one, week-long truce in the Gaza fighting so far, which took place in November.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have for months tried to secure a second one.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the three countries' leaders invited the warring parties to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo "to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay".
Mr Netanyahu's office said Israel would send negotiators "to conclude the details of implementing a deal".
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen expressed her support for the ceasefire talks on X.
"We need a ceasefire in Gaza now," she said.
"I strongly support the efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to help achieve the peace and stability the region needs."
Hamas has yet to publicly respond to the mediators' invitation.
17 schools destroyed last month
Earlier in the week, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Israel destroyed at least 17 schools last month.
"The UN Human Rights Office is horrified by the unfolding pattern of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strikes on schools in Gaza killing internally displaced Palestinians seeking shelter there," the office said.
More than 18 people were killed in Israeli strikes on two other schools in Gaza City only two days ago, Gazan authorities said, with Israeli authorities also claiming to have struck Hamas militants in those attacks.
During 10 months of war across the Gaza Strip, the military has found itself returning to some areas to fight the militants again.
The IDF said on Friday that troops were operating around Khan Younis, the southern Gaza city from which soldiers had withdrawn in April after months of fighting with Hamas.
"Enough!" resident Ahmed al-Najjar said.
"Have mercy on us, for God's sake, the young children and women are dying in the streets. Enough!"
After the military issued an evacuation order for parts of the city, AFPTV images showed a crowd of people flowing through dusty, damaged streets on foot or riding donkeys, as well as motorcycle carts piled with belongings.
"We've been displaced 15 times," said Mohammed Abdeen.
By Friday, the United Nations' humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) estimated "at least 60,000 Palestinians may have moved towards western Khan Younis in the past 72 hours", UN spokeswoman Florencia Soto Nino said.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7 last year when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Gaza's health ministry says that since then, Israel's military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly its entire population of 2.3 million.
Health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilian, while Israel says at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities were fighters.
The International Court of Justice found in January this year that Gaza faced a "real and imminent risk of genocide" as a result of the war, a finding which Israel denies.
ABC/Wires
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