Israeli strike on Gaza City home kills 11 people, civil defence agency says

• An IDF air strike on a Gaza City house where displaced Palestinians were taking refuge has killed 11 people, Gaza’s civil defence ministry said.
• The strike — on a house near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood — took place at around 1am local time.
• At least 10 other people have reportedly also died in air strikes across Gaza overnight.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Saturday that an Israeli military air strike hit a house in Gaza City where displaced Palestinians had taken refuge overnight, killing 11 people.

Palestinian news agency WAFA earlier reported a death toll of 10.

“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,” civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said.

The strike — on a house near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City — took place at around 1am local time, he said.

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

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

The Israeli military said it “struck the commander of a Hamas terrorist cell … who was involved in the planning and execution of terrorist activities”.

Mr Bassal said the IDF carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people.

Five people were killed in north-western 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 Khan Yunis, Mr Bassal added.

The war in Gaza broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel which resulted in more than 1,200 deaths, Israeli authorities say.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has so far killed at least more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.