The Latest | Israeli strike kills 33 in a Gaza school filled with displaced families

Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza killed at least 33 people overnight at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families.

Israel claimed Thursday the school was being used as a Hamas compound, without providing evidence. Israel’s military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties in the strike on the school in Nuseirat refugee camp, and later said it had confirmed killing nine militants.

Casualties from the school strike — including three women and nine children — were taken to a hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, as documented by hospital records and an Associated Press journalist. The hospital has already been overwhelmed by a stream of ambulances since Israeli forces launched a new offensive in central Gaza this week.

International pressure has been mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war against Hamas. Spain’s foreign minister announced Thursday that the country would ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly denies the accusation.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed by eight months of Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger. United Nations agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Around 80 hostages captured on Oct. 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.

Currently:

— Israeli strike kills at least 33 people at a Gaza school the military claims was being used by Hamas.

— Spain applies to join South Africa’s case at top the U.N. court accusing Israel of genocide.

— A social media effort to draw attention to Rafah surges.

— Israeli settlers in the West Bank were hit with international sanctions. It only emboldened them.

— Yemen’s Houthi rebels unveil solid-fuel ‘Palestine’ missile that resembles Iranian hypersonic.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here's the latest:

U.S. IS CIRCULATING A GAZA CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION AT THE U.N., BUT ISRAEL PRIVATELY OBJECTS

UNITED NATIONS — The United States circulated a revised Security Council draft resolution that says a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza must be agreed to by Israel and Hamas.

It also spells out the three-phase plan to end the eight month war and start the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip that it says Israel has accepted and calls on Hamas to accept.

In exchange for the agreement by both parties to a permanent cease-fire, the plan says all Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released and all Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza.

But Israel already is privately objecting to its close ally’s latest attempt to stop the war.

The draft “welcomes the new ceasefire proposal announced on May 31, which is acceptable to Israel ... (and) calls upon Hamas to also accept it.”

An Israeli official told The Associated Press that the language overlooks Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas as a military force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussion.

Because Israel believes that Hamas will engage in future military attacks, it is wary of signing a document that specifically stipulates a cease-fire. That language has a more permanent implication than a “cessation of hostilities,” which has also been mentioned in draft discussions.

Israel also objects to proposed language that “rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip.”

That includes “actions that reduce the territory of Gaza, such as through the permanent establishment officially or unofficially of so-called buffer zones,” which Israel has already said it plans.

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Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer and Michael Weissenstein contributed to this report.

GAZA HOSPITAL SAYS FEWER WOMEN AND CHILDREN KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKE ON SCHOOL THAN EARLIER REPORTED

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The hospital where bodies were brought after an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has amended its records to show that fewer women and children were among those killed.

The Israeli military says it carried out a precise strike early Thursday on three classrooms in the U.N.-run school where it says around 30 Palestinian militants were planning and orchestrating attacks. It said it has confirmed killing nine militants.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among 33 people killed in the strike on the school.

The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy.

EGYPT AND QATAR TELL U.S. THAT HAMAS WILL REPLY TO CEASE-FIRE OFFER IN THE COMING DAYS, ACCORDING TO A U.S. OFFICIAL

WASHINGTON — Egyptian and Qatari mediators have told top Biden administration officials on the ground in the Middle East that they expect Hamas will submit its formal response to the latest hostage and cease-fire offer on the table in the coming days, according to a U.S. official.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said ongoing talks in Doha and Cairo have been constructive, but that Hamas has still not delivered its formal response to a three-phase deal that President Joe Biden outlined last week.

Biden this week dispatched CIA Director Bill Burns to Doha to meet with Qatar’s prime minister about the ongoing negotiations, and his top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials for discussions on the hostage negotiations as well as Israel’s ongoing offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Hamas has said it viewed the offer “positively” and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions.