At least 27 killed after Israel bombs shelter in Gaza City

An Israeli bombing of a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City has killed at least 27 people, rescuers said, and hundreds of thousands in the Rafah area are fleeing in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war amid Israel's newly announced campaign to "divide up" the Gaza Strip.

- Bethan McKernan

Three missiles hit the Dar al-Arqam school in al-Tuafah neighbourhood yesterday afternoon, the civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said, killing several children and wounding another 100 people.

The building was being used as a shelter for Palestinians displaced from their homes. In a statement, the Israeli military said it had taken precautions to avoid civilian casualties in the bombing of what it claimed was a control centre for Hamas.

Another 20 people were killed in a dawn airstrike on the Shuja'iya suburb of Gaza City, bringing the total number of casualties reported by the local health ministry to 97 in the past 24 hours.

The intense wave of Israeli bombing comes amid a major expansion of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aerial and ground operations in the besieged Palestinian territory following Israel's decision to abandon a two-month-old ceasefire two weeks ago.