An Israeli air and ground strike on a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday evening killed 46 people and wounded 150, medics and witnesses said.

Emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told reporters that Gaza hospitals received the bodies of 46 people and 150 wounded in the Israeli aerial and ground attacks on al-Fakhoura school in northern Gaza Strip.

The UNRWA al-Fakhoura school locates in the center of Jabalia refugee camp, with 200,000 poor refugees living there. According to UN officials, the UNRWA-run school was directly targeted by the Israeli army.

Hassanein said it is the worst and highest death toll that occurs since the beginning of the Israeli aerial and ground military operations on the Gaza Strip on December 27, adding that the death toll is around 650.

Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, condemned the attack on the school, saying that "we have several times noted to the Israeli sides to avoid targeting our schools that shelter civilians."

"In spite of rising the blue flag of UNRWA on our schools, the Israeli army has been targeting those schools by missiles and tanks shells," said Abu Hasna, adding "four of our schools were hit; the latest was al-Fakhoura school."

He also said that three Palestinians were killed earlier on Tuesday in a strike on another school in central Gaza Strip, and two more schools were targeted on Monday, where one of the school' s guards was killed.

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2008)