Israeli strikes on Gaza continue after Lebanon ceasefire

Pregnant woman among at least 21 people killed across the enclave

Palestinians inspect a house neighbouring Al Qassam Mosque, both destroyed as a result of an overnight Israeli air strike in Gaza on Wednesday. EPA

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Israeli strikes continued on Gaza overnight and into Thursday killing more than 20 people across the enclave as a ceasefire took hold in Lebanon.

Nine people were killed in a strike hit on a school being used as a shelter for displaced people in Gaza city's Daraj district, the Health Ministry said, with reports of heavy strikes also hitting the northern towns of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, and across the south.

Three other people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in morning strikes and shelling on Beit Lahia and the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the official Wafa news agency.

The woman, who was three months pregnant, was killed in a strike that injured five others in Tal Al Zaatar area. Just hours later, nine people were killed in what Wafa described as "violent bombardment" on Nuseirat refugee camp, while paramedics retrieved the bodies of two brothers killed in Israeli attack on Beit Lahia's Kamal Adwan Hospital on Wednesday.

Israeli shelling continued across northern parts of the enclave on Thursday morning, Wafa added, while local sources said air strikes destroyed an entire residential block in the southern city of Rafah.

About 44,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the war began last October, with another 3,754 killed in Lebanon, where a ceasefire with Israel came into effect early on Wednesday morning.

Hamas has said it is ready for a ceasefire with Israel following the agreement with Hezbollah, reached after months of shuttle diplomacy brokered by Washington. Israel has maintained a tight siege on northern Gaza, and has escalated air strikes on the area in recent weeks.

Palestinians in the war-torn enclave have expressed hope the ceasefire in Lebanon may bring about a similar end to the fighting in Gaza, while others fear it will lead to intensified Israeli attacks. Sources, however, have told The National a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is unlikely, with low-level contact continuing but limited to Hamas officials outside of Gaza.

The ceasefire in Lebanon is a "strategic defeat" for Israel and could pave the way for an end to the war in Gaza, too, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said. IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami said Hezbollah had thwarted Israel's "evil attempts" in southern Lebanon and described the ceasefire as a "great victory" in comments shared by the Fars news agency on Thursday morning.

"The ceasefire on the Lebanese front is a strategic and humiliating defeat for the Zionist regime, which did not even come close to achieving any of its evil goals, aspirations, and desires in the war against Hezbollah, and could even mark the beginning of a ceasefire and the end of the war in Gaza," he added.