29 killed in Israeli strike on Gaza residential block

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 29 Palestinians, including women and children, in a house in Shujaiya in Gaza City, local health authorities said on Wednesday.

Medics said dozens of others were wounded in the attack that hit a multi-floor residential building in the eastern suburb of Gaza City. Many were still believed to be missing and trapped under the ruins of the building. The strike damaged several other houses nearby, medics said.

The Israeli military said in a statement it struck a senior Hamas fighter, whom it did not identify.

Local health authorities said nine other Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli military strikes in other parts of the enclave, raising Wednesday's death toll to 38.

Last week, the military ordered Shujaiya residents to evacuate, saying forces intended to operate against militants in the area.

Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce and sent troops back into the enclave. In the three weeks since, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israeli military strikes have killed nearly 1,500 Palestinians.

Since late March Israel has ordered Gazans out of territory around the edges of the enclave to create what it describes as a security zone; residents fear the aim is to permanently depopulate swathes of territory.

Since October 7, 2023, more than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military campaign, Palestinian authorities have said.

Meanwhile, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said that the army was seizing large areas in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.

"Large areas are being seized and added to Israel's security zones, leaving Gaza smaller and more isolated," Katz said during a visit to the newly announced Morag Corridor between the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

Katz also said that Israel was working to implement US President Donald Trump's plan for the "voluntary emigration" of Gaza residents.

"The four-storey block was home to many people who believed they were safe. It was blown up over their heads," a witness said.

He added that the strike hit while many children were playing inside.

"The house was directly bombed, and the entire residential area was destroyed," he said.

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the strike as one of the "most heinous acts of genocide."

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry condemned the strike as a "heinous massacre".