Gaza rescuers report 11 dead in Israeli strike on house

Gaza - Gaza's civil defense 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.

Israeli soldiers patrol next to destroyed buildings in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on September 13, 2024.
Israeli soldiers patrol next to destroyed buildings in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on September 13, 2024.  © Sharon ARONOWICZ / AFP

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

He said the strike took place at around 1:00 AM and that the house was located near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood 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.

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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 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 Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.

Israel has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza in the last 11 months, according to the territory's health ministry, although the true number is assumed to be far higher.

Cover photo: Sharon ARONOWICZ / AFP

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