By Canadian Press

Israeli strike on a school in Gaza kills at least 27 people, Palestinian health officials say

Apr 3, 2025 | 10:53 AM

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed at least 27 Palestinians sheltering at a school in northern Gaza and wounded 70 more, said Health Ministry spokesman Zaher al-Wahidi, as Israeli forces have expanded their strikes and evacuation orders across the war-torn territory in recent days.

The bodies of 14 children and five women were recovered from the school in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, and the death toll could still rise because some of the wounded had critical injuries, al-Wahidi said.

The Israeli military said it struck a “Hamas command and control center” in the Gaza City area, and said it took steps to lessen harm to civilians. It was not immediately clear if the military statement was referring to the strike on the school.

Israel gave the same reason — striking Hamas militants in a “command and control center” — for attacking a United Nations building used as a shelter on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

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DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Overnight strikes by Israel killed at least 55 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Thursday, 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.

The strikes backed up vows by Israeli officials to intensify the war until Hamas returns dozens of remaining hostages and agrees to leave the territory. Israel has imposed a month-long halt on all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle.

Officials in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the strip, said the bodies of 14 people had been taken to Nasser Hospital – nine of them from the same family. The dead included five children and four women. The bodies of another 19 people, including five children aged between 1 and 7 years and a pregnant woman, were taken to the European hospital near Khan Younis, hospital officials said. In Gaza City, 21 bodies were taken to Ahli hospital, including those of seven children.

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 Gaza. U.N. officials say 15 Palestinian medics and emergency responders were killed in the attack.

The military said the probe would be led by an expert fact-finding body “responsible for examining exceptional incidents” during the war. Rights groups say such investigations are often lacking and that soldiers are rarely punished.

Separately, the military on Thursday ordered residents in parts of central Gaza to move west to shelters in Gaza City, warning that it planned to “work with extreme force in your area.” A number of the Palestinians leaving the targeted area 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 kilometer,” 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.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel was establishing a new security corridor across Gaza to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory.

Israel has also reasserted control over the Netzarim corridor, which separates the northern third of Gaza from the rest of the narrow strip. Both that and another corridor, along Gaza’s southern perimeter, run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

“We are cutting up the strip, and we are increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages,” Netanyahu said.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas, expressed its “complete rejection” of the planned corridor. Its statement also called for Hamas to give up power in Gaza, where the militant group has faced rare protests recently.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.

The Israeli military said an independent body would investigate a March 23 operation which the United Nations said resulted in the deaths of 15 paramedics, including eight from the Palestinian Red Crescent. The military initially said the ambulances were operating suspiciously and that nine militants were killed.

“We take this case very seriously,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman. “We care a lot about our relationship with different organizations. Obviously, the Red Crescent is one of the organizations we work with.”

Netanyahu visits Hungary

Netanyahu arrived in Hungary early Thursday on his second foreign trip since the world’s top war crimes court issued an arrest warrant against him in November over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the the International Criminal Court has said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas — charges that Israeli officials deny.

ICC member countries, such as Hungary, are required to arrest suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that and relies on states to comply. As Netanyahu arrived in Budapest, Hungary said it will begin the procedure of withdrawing from the ICC.

Plans for Gaza

On Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to maintain overall security control of Gaza after the war and implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle much of its population elsewhere through what the Israeli leader referred to as “voluntary emigration.”

Palestinians have rejected the plan, viewing it as expulsion from their homeland after Israel’s offensive left much of it uninhabitable, and human rights experts say implementing the plan would likely violate international law.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war has left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.

Israeli strikes on Syria

Separately, Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southwestern Syria, Syrian state media reported Thursday.

SANA said the nine were civilians, without giving details. Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they were local gunmen from the Daraa province, frustrated with Israeli military encroachment and attacks in recent months.

Israel has seized parts of southwestern Syria and created a buffer-zone there, which it says is to secure Israel’s safety from armed groups. But critics say the military operation has created tensions in Syria and prevents any long-term stability and reconstruction for the war-torn country.

Israel also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including over a dozen strikes near a strategic airbase in the city of Hama. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Thursday that the strikes were intended to prevent Syrian forces and armed groups from maintaining a presence in border areas.

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Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Wafaa Shurafa And Natalie Melzer, The Associated Press