'Clear' neither side interested in Gaza ceasefire - UN

The Secretary General of the United Nations has said it is "clear" neither side of the ongoing conflict in Gaza was interested in a halt to fighting.

"It is for me clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire. And that is a tragedy, because this is a war that must stop," Antonio Guterre told US broadcaster CNN, adding that "neither the government of Israel nor the Hamas really want the ceasefire."

His intervention comes as civil defence rescuers in Gaza City said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least seven people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted Hamas militants.

The vast majority of Gaza 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported "seven martyrs and a number of wounded, including serious cases, as a result of Israeli shelling of Kafr Qasim School" in the Al-Shati refugee camp.

He said hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering there.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Palestinian militants operating from the school grounds, and that its forces had taken steps "to mitigate the risk of harm to uninvolved civilians" including by using "precise munitions" and surveillance.

It said the air force had "conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip" who were "operating from a compound" at the school complex.

The military statement did not provide information on casualties.

The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.

Yesterday the civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on another school-turned-shelter, also in Gaza City, had killed 21 people.

The military said it was targeting militants.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on 11 September drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter - a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.

At least 41,391 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry.

The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.

The 7 October attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 97 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.