By WAFAA SHURAFA and NATALIE MELZER
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 100 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including at least 27 sheltering at a school in the north, according to Palestinian medical authorities, in a stepped-up offensive that Israel’s military said is intended to put new pressure on Hamas and eventually expel the group.
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 70 wounded had critical injuries, said Health Ministry spokesman Zaher al-Wahidi. More than 30 other Gaza residents were killed in strikes on homes in a nearby neighborhood of Shijaiyah, he said, citing records at Ahli Hospital.
The Israeli military on Thursday 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.” 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.
Israel has issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza ahead of expected ground operations, which the U.N. says have forcibly displaced around 280,000 Palestinians since the ceasefire broke down 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. 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.
Another deadly day in Gaza
Overnight strikes by Israel killed at least 55 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Thursday.
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 and their bodies and ambulances buried by Israeli soldiers in a mass grave.
The military initially said the ambulances were operating suspiciously and that nine fighters were killed. 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.
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. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
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.
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.
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 terrorists 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 fighters, 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.
Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel.