GAZA — At least 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday, including 27, or more sheltering at a school in the north of the strip, according to Palestinian medical authorities.

The attacks come as Israel heightens its offensive in what it said is a campaign intended to ramp up pressure on Hamas and eventually expel the Gaza-based group.

The bodies of 14 children and five women were recovered from the school in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City. The death toll may continue to rise as some of the 70 wounded sustained critical injuries, according to the spokesperson of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, Zaher al-Wahidi.

Al-Wahidi says more than 30 other Gaza residents were killed in strikes on homes in the nearby neighborhood of Shijaiyah, citing records at al-Ahli Hospital.

Israel’s military says it struck a “Hamas command and control centre” in the Gaza City area, adding that it took steps to minimise civilian casualties. The same reason was also used – striking Hamas militants in a “command and control centre” – for attacking a United Nations building used as a shelter a day earlier, killing at least 17 people.

Hamas condemned the strike on the school calling it a “heinous massacre” of innocent civilians.

The IDF says it has struck over 600 targets in Gaza and killed over 250 Hamas operatives, including 12 senior officials in Hamas’ military wing and politburo, since it resumed fighting on 18 March.

Israel issued evacuation orders to residents in parts of northern Gaza, instructing civilians to move west and south to shelters, warning that it planned to “work with extreme force in your area”.

Many Palestinians abiding by the forced evacuation notices did so on foot, with some carrying their belongings on their backs and others using donkey carts.

“My wife and I have been walking for three hours covering only one kilometre,” said Mohammad Ermana, 72. The couple, clasping hands, each walked with a cane. “I’m searching for shelters every hour now, not every day,” he said.

Israel has issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza ahead of expected ground operations. The UN humanitarian office said around 280,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas last month.

The fresh evacuation orders came a day after senior government officials said Israel said it would seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it.

To pressure Hamas, Israel has imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic rights groups say is a war crime.

Overnight strikes by Israel killed at least 55 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Thursday.

In the south in Khan Younis, officials said the bodies of 14 people were taken to Nasser Hospital, of which nine were from the same family. The dead included five children and four women.

The bodies of another 19 people, including five children aged between one and seven, and a pregnant woman were taken to the European Hospital near Khan Younis, according to hospital officials.

The attacks came as the Israeli military promised an independent investigation of a March 23 operation in which its forces opened fire on ambulances in southern Gaza.

UN officials say 15 Palestinian medics and emergency responders were killed, and their bodies and ambulances were buried by Israeli soldiers in a mass grave.

The Israeli military initially said the ambulances were operating suspiciously and that nine militants were killed. It added that the probe would be led by an expert fact-finding body “responsible for examining exceptional incidents” during the war.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk, citing the ambulance attack, warned on Thursday that there is “a high and increasing risk” Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.

More than 50,000 people were killed in over 15 months of fighting, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between civilian and combatant casualties.

On 7 October, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 others as hostages. Israel responded by waging a war on Hamas, vowing to destroy the group to ensure no such attack can be repeated in the future. — Euronews