DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes hit a school used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 30 people including several children, as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet international mediators about a proposed cease-fire.

Seven children and seven women were among the dead taken from the girls’ school in Deir al-Balah to Al Aqsa Hospital. Israel’s military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against Israeli troops and store “large quantities of weapons.” Hamas called the military’s claim false.

Civil defense workers in Gaza said thousands had been sheltering in the school, which also contained a medical site. Associated Press journalists saw a dead toddler in an ambulance and bodies covered with blankets. Shattered walls gaped and classrooms were in ruins. People searched the rubble strewn with pillows and other signs of habitation.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 12 people were killed in other strikes Saturday.

Officials from the U.S., Egypt, Qatar and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy on Sunday to discuss cease-fire negotiations. CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel, according to officials from the U.S. and Egypt who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the plans.

U.S. officials Friday said Israel and Hamas agree on the basic framework of the three-phase deal. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech Wednesday to the Congress vowed to press ahead with the war until “total victory.”

After the Israeli strike on the school, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu’s reception from supporters in the U.S. constituted a “green light” to continue Israel’s offensive.

Meanwhile, a deadly exchange of fire Saturday between Israel’s military and Hezbollah combatants in Lebanon renewed concerns about the war in Gaza inspiring a wider conflict.

A rocket strike at a soccer field killed at least 11 children and teens, Israeli authorities said, in the deadliest strike on an Israeli target along the country’s northern border since the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began.

Israel blamed Hezbollah for the strike in the Israeli- controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah rushed to deny any role. Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price for this attack, one that it has not paid so far.”

The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, called it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. He said 20 others were wounded.

Ha’il Mahmoud, a resident of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, said children were playing soccer when the rocket hit. He said a siren was heard seconds before the rocket attack, but there was no time to take shelter.

“The situation here is very difficult,” said Jihan Sfadi, principal of an elementary school. “Parents are crying, people are screaming outside. No one can digest what has happened.”

Israel’s military said its analysis showed that the rocket was launched from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon.

The White House National Security Council in a statement said that “Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”

Lebanon’s government urged an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned attacks on civilians.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Oct. 8.

Officials from countries including the United States and France have visited Lebanon to try to ease the tensions but failed to make progress. Hezbollah has refused to cease firing as long as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues.

Netanyahu’s office said he would cut short his U.S. trip by several hours, without specifying when he would return. It said he would convene the security Cabinet after arriving.

Back in Gaza, Israel’s military ordered a new evacuation of part of a designated humanitarian zone ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis in the south.

The order was in response to rocket fire that Israel said came from the area.

The military said it planned an operation against Hamas fighters, including in parts of Muwasi, the tent camp in a zone where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge. It’s the second evacuation order issued in a week.

The 20-square-mile zone is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid. Israel expanded the zone in May to take in people fleeing the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had crowded.

“This is my ninth or eighth displacement,” said Mohammad Jaber, who was originally displaced from Rafah. “Every time they tell us to go to an area, and it is unsafe. This time, we do not know where to go.”

Israel estimates that about 1.8 million Palestinians shelter in the zone. In November, the military said the area could still be struck and that it was “not a safe zone, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.