Israel targeted a Gaza school on Thursday that it said contained a Hamas compound, killing fighters involved in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the eight-month war, but Gaza media said the strike killed at least 27 people seeking shelter.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office, rejected Israel’s claims that the U.N. school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, had hidden a Hamas command post.

“The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,” Thawabta told Reuters.

Israel’s military said that before the strike by Israeli fighter jets, the military took steps to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.

The attack happened after Israel announced a new military campaign in central Gaza as it battles a group of fighters relying on hit-and-run insurgency tactics. Israel has said there will be no halt to fighting during ceasefire talks.

In an apparent blow to a truce proposal touted last week by U.S. President Joe Biden, the leader of Hamas on Wednesday said the group would demand a permanent end to the war in Gaza and Israeli withdrawal as part of a ceasefire plan.

The remarks by Ismail Haniyeh appeared to deliver the Palestinian militant group’s reply to the proposal that Biden unveiled last week. Washington had said it was waiting to hear an answer from Hamas to what Biden described as an Israeli initiative.

“The movement and factions of the resistance will deal seriously and positively with any agreement that is based on a comprehensive ending of the aggression and the complete withdrawal and prisoners swap,” Haniyeh said.

Asked whether Haniyeh’s remarks amounted to the group’s reply to Biden, a senior Hamas official replied to a text message from Reuters with a “thumbs up” emoji.

Since a brief week-long truce in November, all attempts to arrange a ceasefire have failed, with Hamas insisting on its demand for a permanent end to the conflict, while Israel says it is prepared to discuss only temporary pauses until the militant group is defeated.

Washington is still pressing hard to reach an agreement. CIA director William Burns met senior officials from mediators Qatar and Egypt on Wednesday in Doha to discuss the ceasefire proposal.

Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires were close over the past several months, only for no truce to materialise.

Last week’s announcement came with far greater fanfare from the White House, and at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting domestic political pressure to chart a path to end the eight-month-old war and negotiate the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Hamas, which rules Gaza, precipitated the war by attacking Israeli territory on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Around half of the hostages were freed in the war’s only truce so far, which lasted a week in November.

Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, according to health officials in the territory, who say thousands more dead are feared buried under the rubble.

Meanwhile, a conflict between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah is threatening to escalate, with the U.S. State Department warning against a full-blown war.

ISRAEL LUKEWARM

Although Biden described the ceasefire proposal as an Israeli offer, Israel’s government has been lukewarm in public. A top Netanyahu aide confirmed on Sunday that Israel had made the proposal even though it was “not a good deal”.

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government have pledged to quit if he agrees to a peace deal that leaves Hamas in place, a move that could force a new election and end the political career of Israel’s longest-serving leader.

Centrist opponents who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet in a show of unity at the outset of the conflict have also threatened to quit, saying his government has no plan.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said there would be no let-up in Israel’s offensive while negotiations over the ceasefire proposal were under way.

“Any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted only under fire,” Gallant said in remarks carried by Israeli media after he flew aboard a warplane to inspect the Gaza front.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they had fought gun battles with Israeli forces on Wednesday in areas throughout the enclave and fired anti-tank rockets and shells.

Two children were among the dead laid out on Wednesday in the city’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, one of the last hospitals functioning in Gaza. Mourners said the children had been killed along with their mother, who had been unable to leave when others in the neighbourhood did.

“This is not war, it is destruction that words are unable to express,” said their father Abu Mohammed Abu Saif.

The US State Department said Wednesday that countries should respect the travel ban imposed on Islamic Emirate leaders and should first seek permission before allowing IEA leaders entry into their countries.

This was in response to the minister of interior Sirajuddin Haqqani’s visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Matthew Miller, the State Department’s spokesperson, said countries need to get a travel exemption as specified in the 1988 resolution of the United Nations Sanctions Committee.

He said all United Nations member countries should follow this process.

Haqqani wrapped up a two-day trip to Abu Dhabi on Wednesday where he met with high-ranking officials including Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Emir of the United Arab Emirates.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of Afghanistan’s caretaker government, said on Wednesday night the Haqqani’s trip had been a success and that he had reached a number of agreements with the Gulf nation.

Mujahid said in a post on X that the two sides discussed ways to expand relations to ensure mutual benefits and contribute to the stability of the region.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s interior minister, has wrapped up a trip to the UAE, which according to the Islamic Emirate resulted in a number of agreements being reached.

Haqqani met high-ranking UAE officials during his trip including Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the IEA’s spokesman, said Wednesday that following numerous meetings, Haqqani reached a number of agreements with the UAE.

The two sides agreed to strengthen bilateral relations; for Afghanistan to solicit cooperation from the UAE in the healthcare and infrastructure sectors for the security entities of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan; to secure the release of Afghan prisoners in the UAE; to facilitate the issuance of visas to Afghans by the UAE, with a commitment to establish a mechanism for this in the near future.

The two sides also agreed on the digitalization of the traffic management system within the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Afghanistan.

While the West still doesn’t recognize the Islamic Emirate as Kabul’s government, countries in the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere have reached out to them.