The Zionist occupation army shelled Thursday a UN school in Beit Hanoun that was serving as a shelter earlier in the afternoon.

The Zionist occupation army shelled Thursday a UN school in Beit Hanoun that was serving as a shelter earlier in the afternoon, Maan news agency reported.

The attack killed at least 17 and injured more than 200 of the displaced civilians who had taken shelter there, the fourth time in two days that Israeli forces have bombed schools serving as shelters in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The UNRWA spokesman said in a statement that the majority of the displaced people at the shelter were elderly people, women, and children.

"We told the army several times to warn us because we know that the school is located in a dangerous place. We told them to give us enough time so we can evacuate women and UNRWA team, but they did not."

Five Palestinians were also martyred as an Israeli airstrike hit the Maan area of Khan Younis, said Ashraf al-Qidra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman.

In the same context, 37 Palestinians were martyred by Israeli shelling and airstrikes across the Gaza Strip at dawn Thursday, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 736 with more than 4,600 wounded in 17 days.

Spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Ashraf Al Qudra, said three civilians were killed as the Zionist army raided a home and then a mosque in Jabaliya.

He added that six Palestinians from the same family died at dawn during the bombing of their home in Khan Yunis, while four additional members of that same family were also killed by Israeli shelling in a separate neighborhood in Khan Yunis.

Another family's home was also raided in Jabaliya, in which five of its members were killed. Both incidents left a dozen civilians wounded.

Minutes into the 17th day of the Zionist invasion on Gaza, seven more civilians were killed in Israeli raids in Abassan, Bani Suhaila, and Khan Yunis.

The attacks came a day after Zionist forces said three soldiers were killed and 28 were injured in fighting Wednesday, bringing their total military casualties to 32, in what has been the deadliest assault for Israel since attacking Lebanon in 2006.

The Israeli military confirmed in a statement on Thursday, that they bombed 35 ‘targets’ across the Gaza Strip the day before, as the operation continued with no end in sight.