An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school compound housing displaced families killed around 100 people, the Hamas-run Gaza government said on Saturday, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants there and cast doubt on the death toll.

Video from the site showed body parts scattered on the ground and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets on the floor. Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood and burnt mattresses and a child’s doll among the debris.

The Hamas-run media office said in a statement that the strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing dawn prayers, leading to many casualties.

“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” said Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, in a televised news conference.

Around 6,000 people had been sheltering at the compound, he said. The Gaza health ministry has so far not provided casualty details.

In a statement in Hebrew the Israeli military said the death toll was inflated. It said around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating at the site.

“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.

At the news conference in Gaza City, Bassal said that the strike hit “the upper and ground floors of the school. The upper floor included women and children and the ground floor included people who were praying. They were directly hit.”

Israel says Palestinian militant groups embed among Gaza’s civilians, operating from within schools, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones — which Hamas and its allies deny.