![Palestinians stand at the site of an Israeli air strike on a shelter housing displaced people in central Gaza [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]](https://angelnetworknews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-08-17T090551Z_1030131197_RC2IH9AQ9WHW_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-1723889182.jpg "Central Gaza")
No fewer than 15 Palestinians have been reportedly killed, while dozens wounded in an Israeli strike in the Gaza town of Zawayda on Saturday.
Israel has also issued new evacuation orders, citing Hamas rocket fire nearby, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The strike was said to have hit the home of the Ajlah family in Al-Zawaida neighborhood of central Gaza, the civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
“The toll from the Israeli strike on the Ajlah family home and their warehouse in Al-Zawaida is 15 dead,” Bassal said.
Bassal gave a list of those killed, including nine children and three women.
A witness said the strike took place shortly after midnight.
“Three rockets hit the house directly,” Ahmed Abu Al-Ghoul told AFP as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the flattened house.house
“There were a lot of children and women inside… What have they done to deserve this?“
The Israeli military said it was aware of reports of 15 people killed in a Gaza airstrike and was looking into them.
Israel’s military spokesperson in Arabic posted instructions on X for people in parts of central Gaza, including in Maghazi district which is near Zawayda, to evacuate to a designated humanitarian zone.
He said militants were firing rockets from those locations and that the military was preparing to act against them.
The 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military campaign has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
