The dead included "13 children and six women", one of whom was pregnant, said agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

There were "around 30 injured, including nine children (needing) limb amputations, as a result of an Israeli bombing on Al-Zaytoun School C" in Gaza City, he said.

Thousands of displaced people had sought shelter at the school, Bassal said.

Israel's occupation armr claimed in a statement the air force had "conducted a precise strike" on resistance fighters.

It claimed, ithout providing evidence, they were "embedded inside" the Al Falah School, which is adjacent to the Al-Zaytoun School buildings.

However, an AFP reporter at the scene confirmed that Al-Zaytoun School C had been hit.

Witnesses said that before the strike, orphans had gathered there because they were due to receive sponsorship from a local NGO for humanitarian assistance.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza.

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 said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.

Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people.

Gaza has repeatedly been called the world's deadliest place for humanitarian workers.

The vast majority of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the ongoing genocidal Israeli war.

At least 41,391 Palestinians, a majority of them children and women, have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza since the war began almost a year ago, according to data provided by the health ministry.

The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.

* This story was edited by Ahram Online.