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

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 100 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 27 or more sheltering at a school, according to Palestinian medical authorities, in a stepped-up offensive that Israel’s military said is intended to pressure Hamas and eventually expel the militant 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 rise because some of the 70 wounded sustained critical injuries, said Health Ministry spokesman Zaher al-Wahidi. More than 30 other Gaza residents were killed in strikes on homes in the nearby neighborhood of Shijaiyah, he said, citing records at Ahli Hospital.

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

Hamas called the strike on the school a “ heinous massacre” of innocent civilians.

The strikes came as Israel's military ordered more residents in parts of northern Gaza to move west and south to shelters, warning that it planned to “work with extreme force in your area.” A number of the Palestinians leaving the targeted areas 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. The U.N. 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 would seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it. To pressure Hamas, Israel has imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.

Hamas says 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 from Gaza. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.

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

In the southern city of Khan Younis, officials 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.

Later in the day, strikes killed four more people in Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, and another two people were killed in central Gaza and taken to Al Aqsa Hospital.

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. U.N. 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 military initially said the ambulances were operating suspiciously and that nine militants 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.

The head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Younes Al-Khatib, said Thursday he believed some of the medics were still alive when they were overtaken by Israeli forces. The organization's radio dispatchers heard a conversation in Hebrew between medics and Israeli soldiers after the ambulances had come under fire, Al-Khatib told members of the U.N. Security Council.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. Security Council he was turning over a video he obtained, allegedly showing the moments leading up to the Israeli killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza.

Mansour said the video shows that the aid workers, including eight members of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, were traveling in emergency vehicles with the lights on at night to deconflict with Israeli Defense Forces. But, Mansour said, the video “found on the body of one of the martyrs,” shows that the Israeli army ambushed the vehicle despite the emergency lights.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel was establishing a 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, a military zone that separates the northern third of Gaza from the rest of the narrow strip. Both that and another corridor, along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

Netanyahu said Sunday that 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 view the proposal as expulsion from their homeland, and human rights experts say the plan would likely violate international law.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

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

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.

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 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.

At least two people were killed early Friday in an apparent Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment in a multistory building in the coastal city of Sidon in Lebanon. An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw two bodies being carried out of the building by emergency responders.

There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military. It was the first time an airstrike had hit Lebanon’s third largest city since a tenuous ceasefire agreement brought an end to the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in late November. Israel has continued to carry out regular airstrikes targeting what it has said are facilities and officials of Hezbollah and allied groups since the ceasefire.

Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. Associated Press writers Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press statement at the Carmelite Monastery in the Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Flames rise from an apartment that was hit by an apparent Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Residents help firefighters who extinguished the flames inside an apartment that was hit by an apparent Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A firefighter extinguishes the flames inside an apartment that was hit by an apparent Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Rescue workers carry a dead body of a person who was killed by an apparent Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment building, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A young Palestinian boy who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is brought for a treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A young Palestinian girl who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is brought for a treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian youth who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is lying on a stretcher at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian children carry belongings as they leave the Shijaiyah neighborhood following evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli army, in Gaza City,on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehed Alshrafi)

Displaced Palestinians flee from Shijaiyah, Gaza, on Thursday, April 3, 2025, after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians who were injured in an Israeli airstrike, are brought for a treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians who were injured in an Israeli airstrike, are brought for a treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A young Palestinian girl who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is brought for a treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Relatives mourn the body of Ashraf Al Aqqad, who was killed in an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives of Ayad Jundia who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, grieve over his body at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Relatives of Ayad Jundia who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, grieve over his body at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians pray over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Yamama Jundia, 13, injured in an Israeli airstrike, grieves alongside others over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in the same strike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Inas Al Aqqad mourns the body of her husband Ashraf, who was killed in an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives mourn the body of Ashraf Al Aqqad, who was killed in an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners pray over the body of a woman killed in an Israeli army strike, before her burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Yamama Jundia, 13, injured in an Israeli airstrike, grieves alongside others over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in the same strike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians inspect a UN building after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians inspect a UN building after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Luka Doncic scored 30 points and the Los Angeles Lakers routed the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder 126-99 on Sunday.

Austin Reaves scored 20 points and LeBron James added 19 points and seven assists for the Lakers, who have won four of five.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 26 points and Jalen Williams added 16 for the Thunder.

Oklahoma City remained two games ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the race for the league's best record with five games to play. But instead of closing in on the top seed and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, the Thunder lost consecutive games for just the second time this season.

The teams will meet again Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

The Lakers led 42-32 after one quarter.

Doncic drove to the hoop before firing a two-handed pass behind his head to an open Gabe Vincent, who drained the 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 64-42 lead. The Lakers led 78-56 at halftime after making a franchise record 15 3-pointers in the first half. It was the most points Oklahoma City has given up in any half this season. Doncic led the way with 22 points and hit five 3-pointers, with most being well contested.

Doncic was fouled as he made a circus layup and the free throw pushed the Lakers’ lead to 93-67 in the third. The Lakers led 103-77 at the end of the period.

James' son, Bronny, hit a 3-pointer for the Lakers in the final minute to close out the scoring.

Lakers: Los Angeles showed the peak of its capability in perhaps the best piece of evidence that things are working with James and Doncic together.

Thunder: The Lakers' spectacular individual shotmaking rendered Oklahoma City’s team defensive strategy useless.

James got a steal and breakaway dunk in the fourth quarter to make it 107-83.

The Thunder scored fewer than 100 points for the first time since Nov. 15.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) looks to shoot over Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) looks for an outlet against Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James warms up before an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, right, looks to score in front of Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso, center, and forward Chet Holmgren (7) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) looks to pass the ball away from Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, dribbles away from Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) looks to shoot over Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso (9) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)