Gaza’s civil defence agency said that 17 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Friday on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP 17 people were killed in the strike, which occurred in the early evening.

Medical sources at Al-Awda hospital told AFP that 14 bodies had arrived at the facility from the camp.

The Israeli military did not reply to a request for comment.

Bassal added that nearby hospitals had received 39 wounded with rescue work ongoing at the scene of the strike, which “damaged multiple neighbouring houses”.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,612 people, a majority civilians, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry which the UN considers reliable.