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Around 27 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school, with Israel claiming that the compound housed Hamas militants, Reuters reported. However, local media said the school compound was sheltering people displaced due to the ongoing war.

Israel claimed the United Nations school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, had a hidden Hamas command post. It said the compound housed Hamas fighters involved in the October 7, 20023, attack on Israel that triggered the war, which is now in its eighth month.

Israel’s military said that before the strike by fighter jets, steps were taken to reduce civilian casualties.

However, Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office, rejected Israel’s claims.

“The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,” Thawabta told Reuters.

The development comes as Israel said there would be no halt to fighting during ceasefire talks.

On Wednesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the group would not agree to anything less than a permanent end to the war in Gaza and Israeli withdrawal as part of a ceasefire plan.

“The movement and factions of the resistance will deal seriously and positively with any agreement that is based on a comprehensive ending of the aggression and the complete withdrawal and prisoner swap,” Reuters quoted Haniyeh as saying.

The remark by Haniyeh was seen as a response to US President Joe Biden’s three-phase plan to end the war in Gaza. The plan includes an “enduring ceasefire” and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza if Hamas releases all hostages.

Meanwhile, talks between Hamas and the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a post-war order in the Palestinian territories will likely be held in China in mid-June, Reuters reported. Two rounds of reconciliation talks have already been held in China and Russia.

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