'Everyone is in pieces': Witnesses to Israeli strike on Gaza shelter say there's nowhere safe to go

WARNING: This story contains details about people being killed or hurt in an airstrike in Gaza and graphic images showing blood and injuries.

Mahmoud Nijim was jolted awake by the sounds of bombs falling nearby early Thursday, as the Israeli military attacked the site of a UN-run school in central Gaza that was serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians. 

"We came running to the school and we found children martyred," Nijim, who lives nearby, told CBC News freelance journalist Mohamed El Saife. "All of the martyrs were women and children." 

"Everyone is in pieces," he said. "Blood is everywhere on the rubble." 

He said this was yet another place where people sought safety after fleeing the Israeli strikes that have levelled much of Gaza, only to face more destruction.

"People don't know where to go," he said. "There isn't a single safe place in Gaza."

The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) ran the school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which was sheltering 6,000 displaced people at the time of the strikes, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

Israel carried out what it described as a targeted airstrike on Hamas fighters who had sheltered inside the site, with a top official saying at least 35 people had been killed. Health officials in Gaza said Israel's strike killed at least 40 people.

Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner said the military is "very confident in the intelligence" that the site was being used as an operational base for militants. 

He said 20 to 30 fighters were located in the compound, and many of them had been killed, but had no precise details as intelligence assessments were being carried out.

"I'm not aware of any civilian casualties and I'd be very, very cautious of accepting anything that Hamas puts out," he said, referring to the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza and led the deadly militant attacks on Oct. 7 that precipitated the devastating conflict. 

UNRWA's Lazzarini said the accusation that armed groups may have been based at the site "are shocking" and against International Humanitarian Law. In a post on social media platform X, he said that the agency is "unable to verify" the Israeli claims and condemned the attack on a facility sheltering so many people.

The early morning explosion ripped through parts of the school building, tearing holes through the walls and ceilings and showering concrete chunks on the rooms where people slept.

Footage captured by El Saife showed foam mattresses that appear still wet with blood piled up among the rubble and scattered belongings.