The death toll from Israeli strikes on central parts of Gaza on Thursday has risen from 16 to 25, as more bodies have been recovered, hospital officials have said.
The Palestinians killed in the series of strikes on central Gaza include five children and seven women, the officials said.
The Israeli military did not comment on the specific strikes but said it had killed armed militants in central Gaza on Thursday.
Sixteen people had initially been reported killed in two strikes on Thursday on the central Nuseirat refugee camp, but officials from the Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies continued to be brought in.
The hospital said they had received 21 dead bodies from the strikes, including some transferred from the Awda hospital, where they had been taken the day before.
One of the strikes killed an 18-month-old boy and his 10-year-old sister. The children’s mother was missing on Friday and the father was killed by an Israeli airstrike four months ago, the family told AP journalists at Aqsa hospital.
Strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and on a house in Deir al-Balah on Friday killed four more, hospital officials said, bringing the overall toll to 25.
Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, say health officials inside Gaza, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
They say more than half of the dead are women and children.
Israel began bombarding Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, when the militants killed roughly 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza.
