Palestinian medics say eight killed in Gaza City's Shejaiya district

At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Palestinian medics said on Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had attacked two schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

"The schools were used as hideouts for terrorists," the IDF said. Hamas members had also planned attacks on Israeli soldiers from there, the army said.

In order to prevent harm to the civilian population, precise munitions were used and the area was surveilled from the air, according to the IDF.

Palestinians said earlier a school and a residential building had been hit in the embattled Gaza City neighbourhood Shejaiya, leaving at least eight people dead.

The claims by both sides could not be independently verified.

Military operations are ongoing in several areas of the Gaza Strip, the IDF confirmed earlier, including heavy fighting in Gaza City's eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood.

The IDF said "dozens of terrorists" were killed in close combat over the past day and that more underground tunnels used by Hamas militants were destroyed in Shejaiya, which Israel says remains a Hamas stronghold.

Shejaiya residents also reported seeing armed Hamas members attack Israeli soldiers.

The IDF said fighting is also continuing in the city of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, with several fighters killed in an airstrike there.

First responders are currently unable to reach areas in Rafah and Shejaiya due to the fighting, medics said.

The IDF said a total of more than 50 targets were destroyed in airstrikes in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday.

The IDF also said two of its soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.