Israeli strike kills 28 people sheltering in a Gaza school

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 28 people, including women and children, on Thursday, while three hospitals in the north were told to evacuate putting patients' lives at risk, medics say.

The strike, in which many more were wounded, happened in the city of Deir Al Balah, where a million people have taken shelter after fleeing fighting elsewhere after more than a year of war.

The Israeli military said on Thursday it had carried out a "precise strike on terrorists", who had a command and control centre embedded in a school.

"This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organisation’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law," the military statement said.

Hamas denies such allegations. Medics said 54 other people were wounded at the school.

In the north of the enclave, the Israeli military is pushing on with an offensive begun six days ago, when it sent its troops into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Palestinian health officials say at least 130 people have been killed so far in the operation, which Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.

The military has told residents to evacuate an area in which the UN estimates more than 400,000 people are trapped.

The health officials said the Israeli military on Wednesday gave patients and medics 24-hours to leave the Indonesian, Al Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals or risk being stormed as happened earlier in the war at the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Israel, which has not yet commented on evacuation orders for medical facilities, has said Hamas has command facilities embedded in the hospitals, which it denies.

Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital said, eight patients, mostly children, were at risk inside the intensive care units should the army force them to evacuate.

"Those children were injured with shrapnel all over their bodies, the upper parts and the brain. They are all in critical conditions and are hooked to oxygen systems," Abu Safiya said in a video message to the media.

"The hospital is also running out of fuel, and the occupation is refusing fuel to reach northern Gaza," he added.

Abu Safiya appealed to world countries to press Israel to allow medical staffers in north Gaza's three hospitals to continue to operate saying "Our message is a message of peace for the sake of those children."

"We urge the world to allow us to continue (working) and permit all things needed so that we can provide safe medical care in northern Gaza," he said.

More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, the Gaza health ministry says. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the enclave has been laid to waste.