Thousands flee Rafah as Israel seeks 'security zone'

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

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A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli forces pushed into the city on Gaza's southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City in the north.

Later on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 27 Palestinians, including women and children, inside a school building that served as a shelter for displaced families in Gaza City, local health authorities said.

Medics said three missiles slammed into the Dar Al Arqam school building in Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, and the Israeli military said it struck a command centre that had been used by militants to plan and execute attacks against Israeli civilians and army troops.

Rafah "is gone, it is being wiped out," a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighbouring Khan Younis, told reporters via a chat app.