Gaza civil defence says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza's civil defence agency said that 19 people, including at least six children, have been killed by Israeli air strikes and tank fire.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that "19 people were killed and more than 40 others wounded in three massacres caused by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip between midnight and this morning", as well as by tank fire in Rafah in the territory's south.

One of the strikes hit a house in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north of the territory, killing seven people, three of them children, and wounding 10.

"What did these people do?" said Abdullah Shaldan, a member of the family whose house was destroyed. "They were sleeping in their homes - they are civilians who have nothing to do with Hamas or the resistance."

Another strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis killed six people, including three children, and wounded 26 displaced people who were living in tents near the house that was struck, said Mr Bassal.

"I immediately rushed there and saw the destruction and people carrying body parts from under the rubble," Umm Muhammad Abu Sabla, the sister of one of the victims, told AFP.

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In Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, four people were killed in another strike on a house, and in Rafah, along the territory's southern border, two young men were killed by tank fire, Mr Bassal said.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than thirteen months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.