Thirteen people died and dozens of others have been injured, most of them women and children, in an aerial attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Saturday.
The agency cited local sources, who attributed the attack to Israeli forces. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not as yet commented, and the report could not be independently verified.
The building struck in the attack is reported to be a former school, which has been used as a shelter for families who have fled their homes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October last year.
In its most recent update, the Hamas-controlled health authority reported that at least 38,098 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip and a further 87,705 injured since the war began. The figures include both combatants and civilians.
At least 87 people were killed in the past two days, according to the authority.
Earlier, the IDF said they were continuing operations in several areas of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said several armed Hamas members who had attacked soldiers were killed in the neighbourhood of Shejaiya in the city of Gaza.
In an operation launched at the end of June, soldiers also discovered tunnels and longer-range rockets which indicate “a renewed attempt by the enemy to establish a base in the area,” the army said.
Israel’s military has sought to eliminate Palestinian Islamist Hamas from the neighbourhood in the past.
The IDF also said fighting continues in Rafah in the southernmost part of the strip and “several terrorist cells that posed a threat” were eliminated there.
In an area designated as a “humanitarian zone” in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, the IDF said it targeted a Hamas rocket launcher hidden there.
Rockets are still being fired at Israel from the coastal area despite the ongoing Israeli offensive there. A missile aimed at an Israeli town near the Gaza Strip recently fell in an open area, according to recent Israeli media reports.
During the attack on southern Israel on October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups killed 1,200 people and took up to 250 hostage in the Gaza Strip. Israel believes that around 120 hostages are still there, but many of them are probably no longer alive.
The unprecedented massacre triggered the war in Gaza, with Israeli leaders saying they are still intent on eradicating Hamas.
