GAZA: Rescuers in Gaza said Israel conducted a deadly air strike on Thursday on a school housing families displaced by the war, though the Israeli military said it was a Hamas command centre.
While Israel has widened its military operations to Lebanon since last month, pounding Hezbollah strongholds around the country and battling militants near the border, it has also escalated its strikes on Gaza in recent days.
In Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping force deployed in the south of the country accused Israel of "repeatedly" firing on its positions and wounding two of its members.
In central Gaza, the strike on Rafida School, which according to the Palestinian Red Crescent killed 28 people and wounded 54 others, follows the widening of Israeli operations in the north of the territory.
The Israeli army said the strike targeted Palestinian militants operating from a command and control centre "embedded inside a compound that previously served as the (Rafida) School".
Israel accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings and other civilian infrastructure where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge the Palestinians deny.
The Gaza war began on October 7 last year, when Hamas stormed across the border and carried out the worst attack in Israeli history.
According to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, a majority civilians, figures the UN has described as reliable.
While Israel received international support in its bid to crush Hamas and bring the hostages home, it has faced criticism over its conduct of the war.
Speaking to reporters about the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington was "incredibly concerned" as Israel tightens its siege.
"We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza," he said.
Israel began a major military operation around Jabalia in northern Gaza at the weekend, where about 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
UN investigators on Thursday also accused Israel of deliberately targeting health facilities and killing and torturing medical personnel in Gaza.
Israel is "committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities", the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a statement.
The United States has urged Israel to avoid Gaza-like military action in Lebanon, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it could face "destruction" like the Palestinian territory.
The comments came after a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden, their first in seven weeks.
The White House said Biden told Netanyahu to "minimise harm" to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in "densely populated areas of Beirut".
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