DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military ordered more evacuations in southern Gaza early Sunday after an airstrike that the Israel Defense Forces said killed 19 Hamas terrorists at a school the group was using as a command post. Hamas claimed that 80 people were killed.

Vice President Harris on Saturday declared  that “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed. We need a hostage deal and we need a cease-fire. The deal needs to get done and it needs to get done now.”

Israel has ordered mass evacuations as its troops have returned to heavily destroyed areas where they had previously battled Palestinian militants. The latest evacuation orders apply to areas at Khan Younis, including part of an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone from which the military said rockets had been fired. 

Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of hiding among civilians and launching attacks from residential areas. Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, suffered widespread destruction during an air and ground offensive earlier this year. Tens of thousands fled again last week after an earlier evacuation order.

The war began when Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians burst through Israel’s defenses on October 7 and rampaged through farming communities and army bases near the border, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting around 250 people.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to mediate a cease-fire and the return of the roughly 110 remaining hostages, around a third of whom Israeli authorities believe to be deceased. The conflict has meanwhile threatened to trigger a regional war, as Israel has traded fire with Iran and its proxies across the region.