Israel killed at least eight Palestinians in an airstrike that hit mourners attending a funeral in central Gaza on Friday, according to local health officials, in one of the deadliest attacks reported in the strip since a ceasefire took effect last October.
Medics said another 20 people were wounded when the strike hit the funeral in Nuseirat. The gathering was being held for a person who had been killed in an earlier Israeli strike on the same area.
Separate Israeli airstrikes elsewhere in Gaza killed at least three more Palestinians, taking Friday's death toll to at least 12, health officials said.
Hamas described the attack on the funeral as a "brutal massacre" of mourners and called on international mediators and the United Nations to intervene to stop Israeli strikes in Gaza.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a cell belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group, which operates alongside Hamas in parts of the Gaza Strip.
It added that it was "aware of the claims that several uninvolved individuals were harmed as a result of the strike".
Residents living east of Deir al-Balah said Israeli drones broadcast messages ordering people to leave the area immediately, forcing families to flee their homes in search of safety.
The latest strikes come despite a ceasefire agreed in October that halted large-scale fighting but has failed to end regular violence.
According to Gaza health officials, more than 1,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the truce began. Israel says its operations are aimed at militants. During the same period, four Israeli soldiers have been killed by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a U.S.-based organisation that monitors political violence, said Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas and other militant groups rose to more than 40 in June, the highest monthly figure since the ceasefire began.
The group said other attacks near the boundary between Israeli and Palestinian-controlled areas also killed and injured civilians, including women and children.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Most of Gaza's population of around two million people has been displaced and is now living in makeshift shelters or damaged buildings along a narrow stretch of the coast.
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