The Israel Defense Forces said Friday morning that its ground troops had begun operating in the Shejaiya area of the northern Gaza Strip.

Authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza accuse Israeli forces of a "heinous massacre" with a strike on a school they say killed almost 30 people, many of them children.

At least 17 people, some from the same family, were killed after an airstrike hit the southern city of Khan Yunis, according to hospital staff.