Gaza’s Civil Defense announced Sunday that 28 people were killed overnight in multiple Israeli airstrikes, including four children in a school sheltering displaced families. The Israeli army stated it had "targeted Hamas terrorists" in the school.

"An airstrike on the Mousa ibn Nousayr school, which shelters thousands of displaced people in eastern Gaza City, resulted in eight deaths, including four children," Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, told AFP.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the overnight strike was "a targeted operation against Hamas terrorists operating within the facility to prepare attacks against Israeli forces and the State of Israel." The army added that "multiple measures were taken to minimize the risk to civilians" before the strike.

The Civil Defense also reported that an Israeli airstrike on the Abu Samra family home in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, killed 13 people. Four additional deaths occurred after an Israeli drone targeted a civilian car in Gaza City on Sunday morning, while three unidentified individuals were killed in an Israeli airstrike east of Rafah in southern Gaza.

On Saturday, Pope Francis condemned the "cruelty" of an Israeli strike that killed seven children in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense. Israel criticized the pope’s statement, accusing him of "double standards" and being "disconnected" from the "real context" of its "fight against terrorism."

The war in Gaza began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to AFP figures based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed in captivity in Gaza. Over 45,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military campaign, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.