At least 20 Palestinians die in Israeli attacks in Gaza

In Beit Hanoun, Israeli forces surrounded families sheltering at the Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head toward Gaza City, doctors and residents said.

Doctors said several people were killed and injured during the attack on the school, while the army detained many men. The death toll was not immediately clear.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing to depopulate areas on the northern edge to create a buffer zone. Israel denies this and says the campaign targets Hamas militants and aims to prevent them from regrouping.

The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli officials.

Israel then launched an air, sea and land offensive that killed nearly 45,000 people, most of them civilians, according to officials in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, displaced almost the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.