Israel’s defense minister says the country's military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas” of the Palestinian territory.

The order, which came during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, included Rafah and parts of neighboring Khan Younis. The Israeli military issued a sweeping evacuation order for the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, signaling that it could relaunch intensive assaults in the area.

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.

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize ''large areas,'' the defense minister said, while officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said that Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 40 people,