DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering in the central Gaza Strip killed at least 17 people Thursday, nearly all women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.

The strike came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas, and that talks over a cease-fire and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages would resume “in the coming days.”

Another 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, according to the hospital’s records.

The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has carried out strikes on several schools-turned-shelters in recent months, saying it targets militants hiding out among civilians. The strikes often kill women and children.

Blinken, speaking to reporters in Qatar, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said negotiators would soon return to Doha to renew the long-stalled talks even as it remained uncertain whether Hamas was willing to restart them.

“What we really have to determine is whether Hamas is prepared to engage,” Blinken said on his 11th visit to the region since the start of the war.

The Israeli prime minister’s office also said the head of the Mossad, the country’s spy agency, would head to Qatar on Sunday for the new round of in-person talks with the CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari officials.

The United States has hoped to revive the negotiations since Israeli forces killed top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, but neither side has shown signs of moderating its demands from months of negotiations that sputtered to a halt over the summer.

Blinken also announced an additional $135 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinians, while again urging Israel to allow more assistance to enter the territory.

Health workers in besieged northern Gaza meanwhile warned of a catastrophic situation there, where Israel has waged an air and ground offensive for more than two weeks.

Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in northern Gaza in recent days. The military says it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, which was one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.

Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, said in a video message released Wednesday that some 150 wounded people were being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department.

“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff,” he said.

“Our ambulances can’t transfer wounded people,” he said. “Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don’t just die in the streets.”

Video shows medical staff tending to premature babies and older kids in hospital beds, some with severe burns. One girl is seen with a breathing machine, with a bandaged face and flies hovering over her.

“We are providing the bare minimum to patients. Everyone is paying the price of what is happening now in northern Gaza,” Abu Safiyeh said.

Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in the north left largely inaccessible because of the fighting. The war has gutted the health system across Gaza, with only 16 of 39 hospitals even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.

In Gaza’s northernmost end, Indonesian Hospital patients say they’re struggling to stay alive amid power outages and shortages of food, water and medical supplies.