Eight children among 16 dead as Israel launches airstrikes against Gaza town

An Israeli airstrike on a home killed 16 people, half of them children, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, medics said early on Thursday.

The military continued to strike targets in areas of the besieged territory where it has told civilians to seek refuge.

There was, meanwhile, no word on whether medicines that entered the territory Wednesday as part of a deal brokered by France and Qatar had been distributed to dozens of hostages with chronic illnesses who are being held by Hamas.

More than 100 days after Hamas triggered the war with its October 7 attack, Israel continues to wage one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, with the goal of dismantling the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and returning scores of captives.

The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.

More than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed, some 85% of the narrow coastal territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, and the United Nations says a quarter of the population is starving.

Hundreds of thousands have heeded Israeli evacuation orders and packed into southern Gaza, where shelters run by the United Nations are overflowing and massive tent camps have gone up.

But Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of Gaza, often killing women and children.

Dr Talat Barhoum, at Rafah’s el-Najjar Hospital, confirmed the death toll from the strike in Rafah and said dozens more were wounded.

Associated Press footage from the hospital showed relatives weeping over the bodies of loved ones.

“They were suffering from hunger, they were dying from hunger, and now they have also been hit,” said Mahmoud Qassim, a relative of some of those who were killed.

Internet and mobile services in Gaza have been down for five days, the longest of several outages during the war, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.

The outages complicate rescue efforts and make it difficult to obtain information about the latest strikes and casualties.