An Israeli strike on a school in a refugee area in Gaza which killed more than 30 people is proof “nowhere is safe” in the Palestinian territory, it has been warned.
An Israeli warplane fired two missiles at the building in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday.
It has been reported at least 33 Palestinians were killed in the strike, including 14 children and nine women.
The school was a refuge for Palestinians who had fled northern Gaza since the Israeli invasion began last October.
Israel has said Hamas fighters had gathered in the school, which is run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The commissioner-general of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said 6,000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit, and said his organisation was unable to verify the claim that armed militants were inside.
An IDF spokesperson described the attack as a “precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an Unrwa school”.
It was claimed the military took steps to “reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians” including carrying out “aerial surveillance and additional intelligence information”.
IDF troops are now sweeping back through areas of Gaza they had invaded, claiming Hamas militants are regrouping.
Six people are also reported to have been killed in an Israeli strike on a nearby house.
The strike has prompted widespread condemnation globally.
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said the attack in an area where refugees were sheltering is “further horrifying proof that nowhere is safe in Gaza”.
”This missile attack shows that Netanyahu and the Israeli regime will have to be forced by the international community to the table of peace,” she said.
Last month the Republic officially recognised the state of Palestine, which Ms McDonald said was an “important step”.
“The Irish government must now lead in the push for sanctions that increase pressure for a ceasefire and an end to the slaughter,” she added.
Thursday’s strike occurred on the same day the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, met Taoiseach Simon Harris in Dublin.
A government spokesperson said in a statement the ambassador “briefed the taoiseach on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and the urgent need for food and aid to flow through the Rafah crossing in many multiples of the quantities currently passing through”.
They added that Mr Harris said recognition of Palestine “was not the end of a process, but the beginning”, and that the Republic would “intensify work with Arab and European partners to support the Arab Peace Vision and concrete steps to implement the two-state solution.
“Immediate focus will remain on the urgent pursuit of a ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of hostages, and full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and a rapid and sustainable scale up in humanitarian aid,” the statement added.