DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza (AP) — Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in the Gaza Strip early Friday, as Israel sent more ground troops into the Palestinian territory to ramp up its offensive against Hamas.

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed at least 27 Palestinians sheltering at a school in northern Gaza and wounded 70 more, said Health Ministry spokesman Zaher al-Wahidi, as Israeli forces have expanded their strikes and evacuation orders across the war-torn territory in recent days.

The Israeli military said on Monday that an initial investigation into the killing of 15 emergency workers in south Gaza last month showed that the incident occurred "due to a sense of threat". It said it had identified six Hamas militants as being in the vicinity during the incident in the city of Rafah.