At least 56 killed in fresh Israeli attacks on Gaza, Palestinians say

At least 56 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since early Saturday, Palestinian medical personnel and the civil defence force said.

Multiple areas were reportedly hit in the latest wave of attacks on the coastal territory, with dozens more people injured. The information has not been independently verified.

According to medical sources in the Health Ministry, 11 people were killed in an airstrike on the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, near a former school building. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported a higher death toll in the incident and said children were among the dead.

Gaza's Hamas-controlled civil defence crews reported a further 45 fatalities in additional Israeli attacks.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The health ministry in Gaza earlier said 81 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours, including Friday's casualties.

The latest figures bring the death toll since the start of the war to more than 56,400. The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants and its figures cannot be independently verified.

The Gaza war was triggered by the attack on Israel by Hamas and other Islamist organizations on October 7, 2023.

Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage and abducted to the Gaza Strip.

Since then, the Israeli military has been fighting Hamas in Gaza, with the stated aim of destroying the group.

In the process, much of Gaza has been razed, and humanitarian conditions for the 2 million residents of the sealed-off territory are catastrophic.