The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by Israel's war on Gaza with many seeking shelter in school buildings.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said there were "15 martyrs, including children and women, and dozens wounded, some of them seriously, following an Israeli bombardment of Al-Faluja school in Jabalia camp in north Gaza".

Bassal earlier said the death toll was seven.

Thursday's attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where Israel's assault has raged for nearly a year.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.

At least 41,534 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's relentless bombardment and ground invasion since the war began, according to Gaza's health ministry. The UN rights office confirms most of the dead are women and children.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.