Gaza鈥檚 civil defence on Sunday reported eight deaths, including four young children, in an Israeli air strike on tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Israeli fighter jets targeted three tents housing dozens of displaced people overnight, killing 鈥榚ight people, including four children aged two to five and two women鈥�, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
The Israeli military, which resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce, did not immediately comment on the strike.
Video filmed by AFP shows rescuers in the dark evacuating bodies by ambulance, one of them in a white plastic body bag while the other was wrapped in a blanket, as well as a wounded baby.
Bassal said the Israeli military also destroyed five houses with explosives in the east of Gaza City, in the territory鈥檚 north, and fired artillery at the Abassa area east of Khan Yunis, without reporting any casualties.
The war erupted after Hamas鈥檚 October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The Gaza health ministry said on Saturday that at least 2,701 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,810.
Meanwhile, Hamas鈥檚 armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.
The pair were identified by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana, who were kidnapped during Hamas鈥檚 October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
The undated three-minute video footage released by Hamas鈥檚 Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades shows one of the hostages, 36-year-old Bohbot, visibly weak and lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket.
The second hostage, Ohana, 24, speaks in Hebrew urging the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of all remaining captives 鈥� a similar message to statements made by other hostages, likely under duress, in previous videos released by Hamas.
In a statement, Bohbot鈥檚 family said that 鈥楨lkana and Yosef are crying out to be saved. While all the people of Israel hear their calls, a handful of decision-makers refuse to listen,鈥� echoing criticism of the Israeli government for failing to bring back the hostages.
鈥楬ow much more can we bear? How much more can they endure? The fact that they are still there is a disgrace,鈥� the family said.
Late Saturday, Israeli demonstrators calling for the release of the hostages and an end of the war gathered outside the defence ministry headquarters in the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
AFP images showed some protesters holding pictures of the hostages and placards that read 鈥榳e can save the rest鈥� and 鈥榓ll of them now鈥�.
