Nine Palestinians, including journalists, were killed in a Gaza shelter

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israel struck the building of a UN-affiliated school providing shelter to displaced Palestinians on Sunday, killing at least nine people, including three journalists.

The strike killed nine people and injured several others at the Asma school in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, the civil defense agency said, as rescuers searched for more victims under the rubble.

The agency said six bodies had already been identified, including one of a girl.

The Gaza Government Media Office said the reporters killed in the strike were identified as Saed Radwan Al-Aqsa TelevisionHamza Abu Salmiya z Sanad news agency and Haneen Baroud, who works for al-Quds Foundation.

They say the total number of journalists killed in Gaza has risen to 180 Al Jazeera, in one of the most dangerous combat zones in recent times decades.

Israel also targeted and killed journalists in Lebanon, and at least a dozen were killed.

Taheer al-Rantisi said he “saw a plane destroying a building that collapsed on people,” calling the attack a “massacre.”

The Palestinians hiding in the school building included “innocent children and elderly people,” Rantisi said.

When the strike broke out, “all the people and children were torn apart,” he said.

Paramedic Hussein Mohsen said the displaced people who sought refuge there came from Jabalia and other parts of northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have carried out a large-scale attack since early October, killing hundreds of Palestinians.

“This is not the first time the Israeli occupation has attacked schools,” Mohsen said.

In recent months, the military has attacked several schools converted into shelters, despite their UN-affiliated status.

In recent days, tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled a major Israeli ground and air attack in the northern areas of the besieged Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, an Israeli military attack in Gaza killed 42,924 Palestinians, with thousands more uncounted because it is feared that many of them will be buried under the rubble.

Non-governmental organizations and many experts have described Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as genocide.