More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting Gaza, including 27 sheltering at a school, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The bodies of 14 children and five women were recovered from the school in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Hamas condemned the strike on the school, calling it a “heinous massacre” of innocent civilians. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it struck a “Hamas command and control centre” and took steps to lessen harm to civilians.
Some of the 70 people wounded in the attack suffered critical injuries, said health ministry spokesman Zaher al Wahidi.
He added that, according to hospital records, more than 30 other Gaza residents were killed in strikes on homes in a nearby neighbourhood of Shijaiyah.
Palestinians evacuating the Shijaiyah neighbourhood on Thursday as Israel ordered evacuations and intensified its offensive in Gaza. Pic: AP
Overnight strikes by Israel also killed at least 55 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.
The IDF has been stepping up its offensive in the region in an attempt to put new pressure on Hamas and eventually expel the militant group.
Why are Israeli forces still in Gaza?
On Thursday, the Israeli military ordered more residents in parts of northern Gaza to move to shelters in the western side of Gaza City, warning that it planned to “work with extreme force in your area”.
The evacuation orders follow warnings from senior government officials that Israel would seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it.
Israel has imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid in the hope Hamas will release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
‘We’re not allowed to deliver aid’
But it has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle. UN human rights chief Volker Turksay warned the blockade meant there was “a high and increasing risk” that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs told Sky’s The World With Yalda Hakim that there was “a deliberate policy of withholding aid in order to put pressure on the people of Gaza”.
Hamas is demanding the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout from Gaza. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.
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In recent days, the IDF has been under international scrutiny after opening fire on ambulances, which it claimed were operating suspiciously.
UN officials say 15 Palestinian medics and emergency responders were killed in the attack in southern Gaza in March, then buried by Israeli troops in a mass grave.
On Wednesday, Israel struck what it said were Hamas militants in a “command and control centre”. At least 17 people died at a former UN clinic in the Jabalia refugee camp, which was being used as a shelter.
A former UN-run clinic, where people were sheltering, was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
Israel’s war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Israel has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, while Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants.
