Gaza rescuers say 11 dead in Israeli strike on house

Israeli soldiers inspect the entrance to a reported tunnel, where the Israeli Army said Palestinian militants killed six hostages, in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on September 13, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups. [AFP]

Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that an overnight Israeli air strike hit a house in Gaza City where displaced Palestinians had taken refuge, killing 11 people, including women and children.

"We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli warplane hit a three-storey house of the Bustan family," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, told AFP.

He said the strike took place at around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Friday) and that the house was located near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City.

"Several families had taken refuge in the house targeted with a single missile without any prior warning," Bassal said, adding that many others were wounded.

In an earlier statement, Bassal said rescuers were continuing to search for the missing.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.

Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the Hamas-run territory overnight, killing at least 10 people.

Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an air strike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said.

Three others were killed in a strike in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Yunis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.

The war in Gaza broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 captives during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. The count includes hostages killed in captivity.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has so far killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.