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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military is “switching gears” in Gaza, dividing and seizing more parts of the strip, a move experts say could mean Israel establishing deeper, more long-term control over the territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the pressure on Gaza would increase until the remaining hostages were returned to Israel. “The more they do not give (back the hostages), the more the pressure will increase until they do,” vowed the Israeli Prime Minster in a video statement released on Wednesday.