21 dead in Israeli strikes on houses, school in Gaza

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 1am (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.

It was the latest school building housing displaced Gazans to be hit by an Israeli air strike, resulting in "five martyrs, including two children and a woman", Bassal told AFP, adding that several other people were wounded.

Bassal said the bodies "were pulled from under the rubble after Israeli warplanes hit the Shuhada al-Zeitun school with two missiles".

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 Gaza Health Ministry meanwhile Saturday that 41,182 Palestinians killed and 95,280 injured so far in Gaza in Israeli offensive since October 7.