Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider crisis in the Middle East.

At least 30 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a UN school on Thursday in the central Gaza Strip, according to local health officials in Gaza. Israeli forces said the Unrwa school was a Hamas compound, containing militants involved in the 7 October attack on southern Israel. Israel’s military said that before the strike by Israeli fighter jets, the military took steps to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office, has rejected Israel’s claims.

The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people.

The attack comes as Israel announces a new military campaign in central Gaza, as it battles a group of fighters relying on hit-and-run insurgency tactics.

More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

• The US has warned against an “escalation” on the Israel-Lebanon border, saying conflict would only harm Israeli security. “We don’t want to see that escalation of the conflict which would just lead to further loss of life from both Israelis and the Lebanese people and would greatly harm Israel’s overall security and stability in the region,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. It comes after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened an “extremely powerful” response to attacks by Hezbollah during a visit on Wednesday to Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.

• Months of extreme hunger have already killed many Palestinians in Gaza and caused permanent damage to children through malnutrition, two new food security reports have found. The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.

• The leader of Hamas said the group would demand a permanent end to the war in Gaza and Israeli withdrawal as part of a ceasefire plan, dealing an apparent blow to a truce proposal touted last week by US president Joe Biden.

• Israel said there would be no halt to fighting during ceasefire talks and launched a new assault on a central section of the Gaza Strip near the last city yet to be stormed by its tanks.

• Violent clashes broke out in Jerusalem during the annual Jerusalem flag day march which commemorates the anniversary of Israel taking control and occupying East Jerusalem in 1967. At least two journalists were injured as right-wing Israeli youths marched chanting anti-Arab and anti-Islamic slogans. Israeli peace activists have been taking part in the “flower parade”, where they hand flowers to Palestinian residents as an alternative to the flag march.

• Israel is phasing out the use of a military-run detention camp for Palestinians captured during the Gaza war where rights groups alleged there has been abuse of inmates, justice officials said on Wednesday. In late May, Lorenzo Tondo and Quique Kierszenbaum reported for the Guardian that whistleblowers had described harrowing treatment of detainees at the camp. The claims included inmates regularly being kept shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded and forced to wear nappies, and reports of a man having his limb amputated as a result of injuries sustained from constant handcuffing