Israeli soldiers stand at the entrance of a tunnel where the military says six Israeli hostages were recently killed by Hamas militants, in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, September 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike hit a house in Gaza City on Saturday (September 14, 2024) morning and killed 11 members of a single family, including women and children.

“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli air strike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told media.

The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said.

“Rescuers are continuing to search for the missing,” Mr. Bassal said.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.

Mr. 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.

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 war in Gaza broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians.

Militants also seized 251 captives during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. The count includes hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has so far killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths. The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.