Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 25

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza rescue teams and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 25 people on Thursday, including a family of six whose home was struck in Gaza City.

Israel resumed its military offensive in the Gaza Strip on March 18, following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire that had brought a temporary halt to fighting in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Six members of one family -- a couple and their four children -- were killed when an air strike levelled their home in northern Gaza City, the civil defence said in a statement.

Nidal Al Sarafiti, a relative of the family, said the strike was carried out when the family was sleeping.

"What can I say? The destruction has spared no one," he told AFP.

Nine people were killed and several wounded in another strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to a statement from the Indonesian hospital where the casualties were brought.

The military said it struck a Hamas "command and control centre" in the Jabalia area but did not specify whether the target was the police station.

"The command and control centre was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops," it said in a statement.

Elsewhere, five people died when the tents they had sought refuge in were hit.

Three people were killed, including a child, in the town of Zuwaida in central Gaza, the civil defence said in a statement.

Another two people were killed in a strike on a home in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

"We were sitting in peace when the missile fell.. I just don't understand ... what's happening," said Mohammed Faris, who witnessed the strike on the house.

Since Israel resumed its military operations, at least 1,978 people have been killed in Gaza, raising the total death toll to at least 51,355 since the war began, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The war was ignited by a Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.