Israeli military strikes kill at least 20 across Gaza

UNRWA chief says aid services suspended in Jenin camp for another day

Displaced Palestinians inspect destroyed tents inside Al Dura stadium near Deir Al Balah, in central Gaza, following an Israeli air strike on Sunday. EPA

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza, including on a school sheltering displaced Gazans, medics and residents said.

They said at least 11 of the dead were killed in three separate strikes on homes in Gaza city on Sunday. The others were killed in the towns of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and Jabilia camp in northern Gaza. Residents said clusters of houses were bombed and some set ablaze in the three areas, where Israel's army has been operating for more than two months.

One of the deadliest attacks on Sunday was a morning strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in the northern Gaza town of Izbat Beit Hanoun, Palestinian news agency, Wafa reported. Several civilians were killed and others wounded in the attack, although the numbers were not immediately clear.

In Beit Hanoun, Israeli forces besieged families sheltering in Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza city, the medics and residents said. Several people were killed or injured during the raid and many men were detained, they said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

In another attack, a man, his wife and their two daughters were killed when an artillery shell struck a residential area on Sultan Abdul Hamid Street in Beit Hanoun. Several others were injured in the shelling, the report said.

Two people were reported killed and others were injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a gathering of people around Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Wafa reported.

Tens of thousands of Gazans remain trapped in the north without humanitarian aid as the Israeli military continues a siege of the area.

Israel's military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 44,976 Palestinians and wounded 106,759, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Sunday. Thousands more victims are feared trapped under rubble, inaccessible to emergency and civil defence teams due to Israeli attacks and a lack of equipment.

The war began after Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza killed nearly 1,200 people and took about 250 others captive during raids on southern Israel on October 7 last year.

At least 22 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza on Saturday, including at least 10 people who died in an air strike near the municipality building in Deir Al Balah in the central Gaza strip as people gathered to receive aid, medics said. The Israeli military said it targeted gunmen operating from shelters and aid warehouses.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it had been forced to suspend services in Jenin Camp, in the northern occupied West Bank, for yet another day, as clashes between Palestinian security forces and militants continued.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the fighting prevented children from attending school and that camp residents were unable to access primary health care and other critical services.

"In an alarming trend, tensions are on the rise across northern West Bank refugee camps, undermining the fragile stability," said Mr Lazzarini wrote on X.