Gaza City, December 15 (RHC)-- At least 15 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces stormed a Gaza school sheltering displaced people, sources have told Al Jazeera, amid a wave of attacks across the besieged Palestinian territory killing dozens more, including two journalists overnight.

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that several others were also injured in the Israeli attack on Khalil Oweida School in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza on Sunday.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, quoted witnesses as saying many of those hurt during the storming of the school sustained “severe injuries.”  “They have nowhere to go because the Israeli military forces are encircling the area with tanks and armoured vehicles, and hammering the school with heavy artillery,” he said.

Among those killed were a family of four, including two children, after the classroom where they were sheltering took a “direct hit” from artillery fire.  

“Many of the injured are in the courtyard of the school and inside the other classrooms.  They can’t get any treatment because none of the hospitals in Beit Hanoon are operational,” he said, noting that the storming of the school happened “without prior warning.”

The Palestinian news agency WAFA also confirmed the 15 deaths.  WAFA reported that those who remained at the besieged school, many of them women and children, were being forced to leave the area and move towards a military checkpoint set up at Salah al-Din Street.  Several of the men were reportedly detained.