GAZA -- At least 17 Palestinians were killed, including nine children, by the Israeli bombing on the Shuhada al-Nuseirat school in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.

The attack also left more than 52 others injured and a number of persons missing, the media office said in a statement, adding that the school sheltered thousands of displaced persons, and the majority of them are children and women.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Thursday that the Israeli Air Force conducted a strike on Hamas militants who were operating inside a command and control center in the area of Nuseirat.

The command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Shuhada al-Nuseirat School, was used to plan and execute attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel, it added.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 42,847, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Thursday.