By WAFAA SHURAFA and NATALIE MELZER

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 100 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including at least 27 sheltering at a school in the north, according to Palestinian medical authorities, in a stepped-up offensive that Israel’s military said is intended to put new pressure on Hamas and eventually expel the group.

The bodies of 14 children and five women were recovered from the school in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, and the death toll could still rise because some of the 70 wounded had critical injuries, said Health Ministry spokesman Zaher al-Wahidi. More than 30 other Gaza residents were killed in strikes on homes in a nearby neighborhood of Shijaiyah, he said, citing records at Ahli Hospital.

The Israeli military on Thursday ordered more residents in parts of northern Gaza to move to shelters in the western side of Gaza City, warning that it planned to “work with extreme force in your area.” A number of the Palestinians leaving the targeted area did so on foot, with some carrying their belongings on their backs and others using donkey carts.

“My wife and I have been walking for three hours covering only one kilometer,” said Mohammad Ermana, 72. The couple, clasping hands, each walked with a cane. “I’m searching for shelters every hour now, not every day,” he said.

Israel has issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza ahead of expected ground operations, which the U.N. says have forcibly displaced around 280,000 Palestinians since the ceasefire broke down last month.

The fresh evacuation orders came a day after senior government officials said Israel said it would seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it. Israel has imposed a month-long halt on all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle.

Another deadly day in Gaza

Overnight strikes by Israel killed at least 55 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Thursday.

Officials in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the strip, said the bodies of 14 people had been taken to Nasser Hospital – nine of them from the same family. The dead included five children and four women. The bodies of another 19 people, including five children aged between 1 and 7 years and a pregnant woman, were taken to the European hospital near Khan Younis, hospital officials said. In Gaza City, 21 bodies were taken to Ahli hospital, including those of seven children.

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The attacks came as the Israeli military promised an independent investigation of a March 23 operation in which its forces opened fire on ambulances in Gaza. U.N. officials say 15 Palestinian medics and emergency responders were killed and their bodies and ambulances buried by Israeli soldiers in a mass grave.

The military initially said the ambulances were operating suspiciously and that nine fighters were killed. The military said the probe would be led by an expert fact-finding body “responsible for examining exceptional incidents” during the war. Rights groups say such investigations are often lacking and that soldiers are rarely punished.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel was establishing a new security corridor across Gaza to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israel has also reasserted control over the Netzarim corridor, which separates the northern third of Gaza from the rest of the narrow strip. Both that and another corridor, along Gaza’s southern perimeter, run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.

Netanyahu visits Hungary

Netanyahu arrived in Hungary early Thursday on his second foreign trip since the world’s top war crimes court issued an arrest warrant against him in November over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the the International Criminal Court has said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas — charges that Israeli officials deny.

ICC member countries, such as Hungary, are required to arrest suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that and relies on states to comply. As Netanyahu arrived in Budapest, Hungary said it will begin the procedure of withdrawing from the ICC.

Plans for Gaza

On Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to maintain overall security control of Gaza after the war and implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle much of its population elsewhere through what the Israeli leader referred to as “voluntary emigration.”

Palestinians have rejected the plan, viewing it as expulsion from their homeland after Israel’s offensive left much of it uninhabitable, and human rights experts say implementing the plan would likely violate international law.

The war began when Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

The war has left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.

Israeli strikes on Syria

Separately, Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southwestern Syria, Syrian state media reported Thursday.

SANA said the nine were civilians, without giving details. Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they were local gunmen from the Daraa province, frustrated with Israeli military encroachment and attacks in recent months.

Israel has seized parts of southwestern Syria and created a buffer-zone there, which it says is to secure Israel’s safety from armed groups. But critics say the military operation has created tensions in Syria and prevents any long-term stability and reconstruction for the war-torn country.

Israel also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including over a dozen strikes near a strategic airbase in the city of Hama. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Thursday that the strikes were intended to prevent Syrian forces and armed groups from maintaining a presence in border areas.

Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel.

By JUSTIN SPIKE

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary will begin the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, an official said Thursday, just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived to red carpet treatment in the country’s capital despite an arrest warrant from the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide.

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Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave the Israeli leader a welcome with full military honors in Budapest’s Castle District. The two close allies stood side by side as a military band played and an elaborate procession of soldiers on horseback and carrying swords and bayoneted rifles marched by.

As the ceremony unfolded, Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, released a brief statement saying that “the government will initiate the withdrawal procedure” for leaving the court, which could take a year or more to complete.

Orbán later said that he believes the ICC is “a political court.”

Netanyahu makes second trip abroad since warrant

Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary, which is scheduled to last until Sunday, was only his second foreign trip since the ICC issued the warrant against him in November.

The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said when issuing its warrant that there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had committed crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.

The ICC also issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders who were later killed.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 terrorists, without providing evidence, and resumed its campaign last month, shattering a ceasefire.

After the ICC issued the warrant, Orbán invited Netanyahu to Budapest, and accused the court of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.” That invitation was in open defiance of the court’s ruling and contradicted Hungary’s obligations as a signatory to arrest any suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil.

All countries in the 27-member European Union, including Hungary, are signatories, but the court relies on member countries to enforce its rulings. Hungary joined the court in 2001 during Orbán’s first term as prime minister.

‘No longer an impartial court’

At a news conference following their meeting, Orbán said that he believes the ICC is “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court. And this was most clearly shown by the decisions regarding Israel.”

“I am convinced that this otherwise important international judicial forum has been degraded into a political tool, with which we cannot and do not want to engage,” Orbán said.

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, is seen as using some of the tactics that Netanyahu has been accused of employing in Israel: subjugation of the judiciary, antagonism toward the EU and cracking down on civil society and human rights groups.

During the news conference, where journalists weren’t permitted to ask questions, Netanyahu praised Hungary’s decision, thanking Orbán for taking a “bold and principled decision.”

“The ICC directs its actions against us fighting a just war with just means,” Netanyahu said, calling Hungary “the first state that walks out of this corruption and this rottenness, and I think it’ll be deeply appreciated, not only in Israel but in many, many countries around the world.”

ICC has criticized Hungary

Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary was his second opportunity to travel abroad following the issuance of the warrant — the first was when he met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington in February. It was also a chance to project an image of statesmanship while he faces mounting discontent at home.

He has faced mass protests by Israelis who fear his decision to resume the war in Gaza endangers the lives of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. He has also sparked anger by trying to fire or sideline top officials in what critics view as a power grab and an attack on state institutions.

Along with resuming its offensive in Gaza last month, Israel halted all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to the territory’s 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to release more hostages and accept proposed changes to the truce agreement.

The ICC has criticized Hungary’s decision to defy its warrant for Netanyahu, with the court’s spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah, saying on Thursday that the court “recalls that Hungary remains under a duty to cooperate with the ICC.”

Hamas said in a statement that it considers the move by Hungary an “immoral stance that shows collusion with a war criminal who is running away from justice.” The group called on Hungary to reverse its decision and hand Netanyahu over to the ICC to stand trial.

Molly Quell in Amsterdam and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.

The dates for the Vikings’ voluntary offseason workout program — which begins April 21 — were announced by the NFL on Thursday.

Minnesota has three weeks featuring organized team activities : May 27-28 and 30, June 2-3 and 5 and June 16-18, The team’s mandatory minicamp is slated for June 10-12.

All offseason activities will be held at TCO Performance Center in Eagan.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Creating and sharing deceptive media made with artificial intelligence is now a crime in New Jersey and open to lawsuits under a new state law.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation Wednesday making the creation and dissemination of so-called deceptive deepfake media a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, and establishing a basis for lawsuits against perpetrators.

New Jersey joins a growing list of states enacting measures taking aim at media created using generative AI. At least 20 states have passed similar legislation that targets such media involving elections.

As of last year, governors in more than a dozen states had signed laws cracking down on digitally created or altered child sexual abuse imagery, according to a review by The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

New Jersey’s law stems in part from the story of Westfield High School student Francesca Mani, who stood alongside the governor as he signed the bill this week. Mani said she became the victim of a deepfake video two years ago and was told that the only punishment for the person who created it was a short suspension because there were no laws against such media.

“Doing nothing is no longer an option,” said Mani, who pushed for the legislation and was recognized by Time last year as an anti-deepfake activist.

The measure defines a deepfake as any video or audio recording or image that appears to a reasonable person to realistically depict someone doing something they did not actually do.

In addition to prison time upon conviction, the law establishes civil penalties that would permit victims to pursue lawsuits.