Israeli air strikes kill at least 18 people in Gaza Strip – health officials

At least 18 people – eight of them children – have been killed in Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials have said.

The Civil Defence – first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government – said three children and their mother were killed in an air strike late on Monday in the Tufah area of Gaza City.

It said three other people were missing after the strike.

Another strike late on Monday hit a building in downtown Gaza City, killing a child, three women and a man, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In southern Gaza, a strike on a home early on Tuesday killed five people, including a man, his three children as young as three years old and a woman, according to a casualty list provided by Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where the bodies were taken.

Another air strike early on Tuesday flattened a home west of Khan Younis, killing at least four people, including a child, according to Nasser Hospital, where the dead were taken.

Footage shared online showed residents digging through the rubble. A man carried a wounded child to an ambulance while two others carried a dead body wrapped in a blanket.

Palestinian health officials did not say whether the adults killed in Israeli strikes are civilians or fighters.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas of putting them in danger by fighting in residential areas.

Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s offensive has killed more than 40,000 people in the territory.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 people.