An overnight Israeli airstrike in Gaza City has killed 11 people, including women and children, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
The airstrike hit a house where displaced Palestinians had taken refuge, said Mahmud Bassal, the agency’s spokesperson.
“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli warplane hit a three-storey house belonging to the Bustan family,” Bassal said. The strike occurred around 1 a.m. local time near Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City.
Bassal added that several families had sought refuge in the house, which was struck by a missile without prior warning. “Many others were wounded,” he added, and rescuers are still searching for those missing under the rubble.
The Israeli military has not commented on the strike as of yet.
According to Bassal, Israeli forces carried out similar airstrikes in other areas of Gaza overnight, killing at least 10 more people. In one instance, five people were killed when a strike hit a group near Dar Al-Arqam school in northwestern Gaza City.
Additionally, three people died in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Yunis governorate, where thousands of displaced Palestinians had taken shelter.
The conflict escalated following the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which left 1,205 people dead, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also took 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom remain in captivity, including 33 that the Israeli military says are dead.
In retaliation, Israel has launched a military campaign that has so far killed at least 41,182 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry has not provided a breakdown of civilian and militant casualties.
