Gaza rescuers say family of 10 killed in Israel strike

Dozens of Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed "only women and children" after a ceasefire collapsed last month, the United Nations said, as an Israeli attack in the territory's south killed a family of 10 on Friday.

A UN human rights office report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising "real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza".

The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack that killed members of the same family in Khan Yunis, adding separately that it hit around 40 "terror targets" across the territory over the previous day.

Israel resumed its Gaza strikes on 18 March, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

Since then, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.

"Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis," civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

AFP footage of the aftermath showed several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets, and the mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal of the family's home.

Late on Friday, the civil defence reported that at least four more people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, while the military said it shot dead "two terrorists" who fired at troops in southern Gaza.

The military also reported it intercepted a drone approaching from the east, but did not give details of where it had been launched from.

Since the war in Gaza erupted, Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have repeatedly launched drones and missiles at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Living in cemeteries

Reacting to Friday's strike on the family home, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Israel at a forum, saying: "If this is not barbarism, I ask you, what is it?"

Israel's military issued new evacuation warnings to residents in areas of northern and southern Gaza ahead of new offensives.

"Several medical facilities and storage sites containing critical supplies are located within the newly designated displacement zones," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

OCHA warned that this could have "life-threatening consequences for people in urgent need of care".

Many displaced Gazans are living in tents in cemeteries.

"We couldn't find any place to live ... That's why we were forced to sit on top of graves," Ibtisam Abu Ghanima told AFP at a cemetery in Gaza City.

"The dead have become better off than the living. On top of that, there's the awful smell, rats come at us, reptiles too, and we are dying," she said.

The UN decried the impact of Israel's ongoing strikes, finding that "a large percentage of fatalities are children and women".

"Between 18 March and 9 April 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people," the UN human rights office said in Geneva.

"In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children."

Israel's military has repeatedly said Palestinian militants often hide among civilians, a charge Hamas denies.

The war broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Gaza's health ministry said Friday at least 1,542 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,912.

Ceasefire efforts

In a Passover holiday message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to bring the remaining captives home.

US President Donald Trump also told a cabinet meeting Thursday that "we're getting close to getting them back".

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff was quoted in an Israeli media report as saying "a very serious deal is taking shape, it's a matter of days".

Israeli media reported that Egypt and Israel had exchanged draft documents on a ceasefire-hostage release deal.

The Times of Israel said Egypt's proposal would mean eight living hostages and eight bodies handed over in exchange for a truce of between 40 and 70 days and a large number of Palestinian prisoner releases.

A Hamas leader who declined to be identified told journalists the group "is open to any new proposal that would achieve a ceasefire, withdraw the occupation's forces and end the suffering of the Palestinian people".