The strike hit the home of the Ajlah family in Al-Zawaida neighbourhood of central Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
"The toll from the Israeli strike on the Ajlah family home and their warehouse in Al-Zawaida is 15 dead," Bassal said.
Bassal gave a list of those killed, including nine children and three women.
The Israeli military told AFP that during the night its forces had struck "terrorist infrastructure" in central Gaza from which rockets were being fired towards Israel.
"Reports were received that as a result of the strike, civilians in an adjacent structure were killed. The incident is under review," it said in a statement.
A witness said the strike took place shortly after midnight (2100 GMT Friday).
"Three rockets hit the house directly," Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul told AFP as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the flattened house.
"There were a lot of children and women inside... What have they done to deserve this?"
AFPTV footage of the aftermath, captured after dawn, showed rescuers searching for bodies under piles of collapsed concrete blocks.
More than 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas has left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins.
The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 people during the attack, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,074 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not provide breakdowns of civilian and militant deaths.
Palestinians say two dead in Israel West Bank drone strike
Nablus, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Aug 17, 2024 -
Palestinian officials said two people were killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank on Saturday that the Israeli military said targeted a "terrorist cell" in the Jenin area.
"Two bodies were transferred to Jenin public hospital after the occupiers (Israeli forces) bombed a car in the centre of the city," the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the strike was carried out by an "Israeli drone".
The military said in a statement that it had carried out an "air strike on a terrorist cell in the Jenin area".
Video footage posted online showed a vehicle on fire in the middle of a street, while some images showed a crowd around a charred car, trying to open the doors.
"There are dead people in the car," shouts a man as a stretcher is brought by rescue workers.
Since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.
Since October 7, at least 635 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.
During the same period, at least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli official figures.
Lebanon says 10 Syrians killed in Israeli strike on south
Beirut, Lebanon (AFP) Aug 17, 2024 -
The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli air strike on the south on Saturday killed 10 Syrians, as the Israeli military reported hitting weapons stores of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
The death toll from the strike in the Wadi al-Kafur area of Nabatieh is one of the heaviest since Hezbollah began exchanging near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces after the Gaza war erupted last October.
Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators have been trying to broker a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which diplomats say could help to avert a wider war in which Lebanon would be on the front line.
The dead in the latest strike included "a woman and her two children," the health ministry said in a statement.
A source close to Hezbollah in the Nabatieh area told AFP they were all civilians.
The Israeli military said the air force had struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility overnight "in the area of Nabatieh", some 12 kilometres (seven and a half miles) from the Israeli border.
Hezbollah said it responded with a volley of Katyusha rockets on Ayelet HaShahar, a community in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said there were no reports of any casualties but the 55 rockets sparked "multiple fires".
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told British Foreign Minister David Lammy in a call there was a "need to pressure the Israeli enemy to stop its direct targeting of southern towns and villages".
"The current cycle of violence may lead to an escalation with dire consequences," Mikati told Lammy, according to a statement shared by his office.
The Syrian foreign ministry condemned the air strike, calling it "a blatant crime against Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a threat to peace and security in the region".
Earlier, the Israeli military said a "projectile" fired from Lebanon had wounded two soldiers, one of them severely, near Misgav Am, a kibbutz community close to the border.
The killing of senior Hebollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli air strike in late July, swiftly followed by that of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in an attack in Iran blamed on Israel, have prompted promises of retaliation and fears of a wider Middle East war.
In an effort to avert an escalation, Western and Arab diplomats have intensified efforts for a Gaza truce but ahead of fresh round of talks in Cairo next week, a deal remains elusive.
The cross-border violence has killed 581 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 128 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Related Links
Space War News
Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |