REUTERS, Cairo

Israeli air attacks across the Gaza Strip killed at least 38 Palestinians yesterday, most of them in an airstrike on a house in Beit Lahiya town in the north of the enclave, medics said.

The Beit Lahiya strike killed at least 22 people, including women and children, health officials said. Relatives listed the names of the dead on social media.

More than 30 people were living in the multi-storey building before it was struck, and several family members remained missing as rescue operations continued through the morning, the Palestinian WAFA news agency said.

At least 44,805 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement yesterday.

In nearby Beit Hanoun, where the Israeli forces have operated since October, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed and wounded several people, without giving an exact toll. Rescue workers said several people were trapped under rubble.

Earlier yesterday, at least seven Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, medics told Reuters.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service and medics said four other people were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes on two houses in Gaza City.

The Israeli military said in a statement that two rockets were fired from the central Gaza Strip into Israel, but fell in open areas and caused no injuries. It signalled the ability of Hamas rebels in Gaza to continue to stage rocket attacks despite 14 months of devastating Israeli aerial and ground offensives.

Later yesterday, the Israeli military ordered residents in the Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza to evacuate, citing rocket launches from the area. It urged them to head towards a humanitarian-designated zone near the Mediterranean coast.

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the devastated enclave. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding among the civilian population, a charge Hamas denies as a pretext by Israel to “justify its indiscriminate attacks”.

Israeli forces have been operating in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the nearby Jabalia refugee camp since October 5.

The UN General Assembly was set to vote yesterday on a draft resolution that seeks an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a symbolic gesture after the US previously vetoed a similar action in the UN Security Council.