STORY: Eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday (June 23) in an Israeli airstrike on a building near Gaza City being used to distribute aid, according to witnesses.
They said the strike hit part of an industrial college run by the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.
Mohammed Tafesh, one of the witnesses, described how some were collecting waters and others were receiving coupons when the strike hit.
He said they'd since been pulling people from the rubble, including one person who had been selling cold drinks and another who used to sell pastries.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Juliette Touma, UNRWA's director of c ommunications, said the agency was looking into the details of the reported attack before providing more information.
She said that since the beginning of the war, nearly 190 of their buildings had been hit - the vast majority of their facilities in Gaza.
More than eight months into the conflict and Israel's advance is focused on two areas it is yet to seize.
One is the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the enclave's center, the other is Rafah in the south.
Residents said on Sunday that Israeli tanks had advanced to the edge of the Mawasi displaced persons' camp in the northwest of Rafah amid fierce clashes with Hamas-led fighters.
The Israeli military said it was continuing "intelligence-based, targeted operations" in the Rafah area and had located weapons stores and tunnel shafts, and killed Palestinian gunmen.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement said their fighters had attacked Israeli forces in Rafah with anti-tank rockets, mortar bombs and pre-planted explosive devices.
