Authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza accuse Israeli forces of a "heinous massacre" with a strike on a school they say killed almost 30 people, many of them children.

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.

And this is why you don't take Hamas at its word, ladies and gentlemen of the world. In November 2024, a rash of headlines appeared about the human toll of the crisis in the Gaza Strip. The headlines speak for themselves.

Hamas decided not to respond or engage with Israel's counter-proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, an official told Reuters on Wednesday, affirming it is committed to the mediators' plan instead.

The bodies of 14 children and five women were recovered from the school in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had seized a corridor of land that would split one of Gaza’s largest cities from the rest of the enclave.