Israeli strike kills 11 Palestinians

GAZA, Sept 25 (AFP): An Israeli air strike on a home where displaced people had taken refuge in central Gaza killed at least 11 people on Thursday, the territory's civil defence spokesperson told AFP.

Israel has intensified its offensive on the devastated Palestinian territory in recent weeks, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee.

"Eleven people were killed and many are missing or wounded after an Israeli airstrike targeted a house... which was sheltering displaced people north of Al-Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

Several children were among those killed, the emergency services said, and their bodies were taken to a nearby hospital.

Over nearly two years, Israeli military operations have killed at least 65,419 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the UN considers reliable.

The war was triggered by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 Israelis, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.

The US-backed offensive on Gaza City came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.

Israel rejected the findings and slammed the probe as "distorted and false".

Large parts of Gaza have been laid to waste, and last month a body backed by the United Nations officially declared famine in part of the territory.

"We lost our children, our homes and our places," Najia Abu Amsha, a Palestinian whose nephew was killed while waiting for aid, said Wednesday.

"We became beggars and sick."

Yemen drone attack on

Israel resort wounds 22

Israel's military said a drone launched from Yemen struck the southern tourist resort of Eilat on Wednesday, with rescuers reporting nearly two dozen wounded.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

An Israeli military statement said the drone "fell in the area of Eilat" on the Red Sea coast after air defences had failed to intercept it, in the second such incident within days.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said its teams had treated 22 casualties, including two men, aged 26 and 60, who were in serious condition with shrapnel wounds.

One person was moderately injured with a shrapnel wound to the back, and 19 others were in light condition suffering "from shrapnel and other injuries", the medical service said.

Police said the drone fell in Eilat's city centre, causing damage in the area frequented by tourists.

Footage shared on social media, which AFP could not independently verify, showed a drone flying above the resort town before crashing with smoke rising from the impact area.

Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, in a statement issued later, said the Iran-backed group had launched two drones at two targets in southern Israel.