The strike on a home left other bodies buried under the rubble, according to the Gazan authorities. The Israeli military said it had been targeting a Hamas operative.
An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City neighborhood killed 23 people on Wednesday, including eight children, and left more than 70 wounded, Gaza’s Civil Defense service said. About 20 people remained missing, but rescuers had little equipment to pull them from the rubble, the group said.
The Israeli military said it had been targeting a Hamas operative who it said was responsible for planning attacks. It did not name the operative or give further details. Civil Defense’s death toll, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, could not be independently verified. Gaza’s Health Ministry had not yet released a death toll.
A Civil Defense spokesman, Mahmoud Basal, said the strike had destroyed eight homes in Shajaiye, an already hard-hit area.
Video footage published by Reuters showed rescuers trying to free dust-caked people from the wreckage with little but shovels, tools and their bare hands. They strained to push a collapsed ceiling off a man who was trapped flat underneath.
Two men picked their way through the moonscape that had been the street, lifting a small body in a colorful blanket. A donkey cart pulled another blanket-wrapped body away.