The China Mail - Gaza rescuers say children among 10 killed in Israeli strike

The UN rights office report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the Palestinian territory, where the war began 18 months ago.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack that killed members of the same family in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, adding in a separate statement that it had struck approximately 40 "terror targets" across the Palestinian territory over the past day.

Israel resumed intense strikes on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

Since then, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.

"Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis," Gaza civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Medics and rescuers transported the dead and injured to hospital in multiple ambulances, with several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets, AFP footage of the aftermath showed.

Footage of the house showed a heavily destroyed structure. Mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal were strewn across the site.

Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in Khan Yunis.

The civil defence agency also reported two people killed in an Israeli strike in the Al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

- 'Women and children' -

Early on Friday, the Israeli military issued an "urgent and serious" evacuation warning to residents of several areas east of Gaza City.

"The IDF is operating with great force in your areas to destroy terrorist infrastructure. For your safety, you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the known shelters in western Gaza City," Avichay Adraee, the military's Arabic-language spokesman, said on X.

A separate military statement said its forces had overnight "deepened ground activity in the Morag Corridor," referring to a new buffer zone between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The UN on Friday decried the impact of ongoing Israeli strikes across Gaza, finding that "a large percentage of fatalities are children and women".

"Between 18 March and 9 April 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people," the United Nations human rights office said in Geneva.

It said that "in some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children".

The Israeli military has repeatedly said that Palestinian militants often take refuge among civilians, a charge denied by Hamas.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

During the attack, militants took 251 people hostage, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Gaza's health ministry said on Thursday that at least 1,522 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,886.

- Ceasefire efforts -

A truce brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar that took effect on January 19 and lasted until March 17 saw the return of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of them in coffins, in exchange for the release of around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.

In a message marking the Jewish Passover holiday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to bring back the remaining captives.

His comments came after US President Donald Trump suggested progress in hostage release talks, telling a cabinet meeting on Thursday that "we're getting close to getting them back".

In his message for Passover -- a holiday celebrating the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt -- Netanyahu said "for many families there will be empty chairs" but "together we will return our hostages".

Netanyahu has insisted increased military pressure is the only way to get the captives home but around 1,000 reserve and retired air force pilots challenged that premise in a full-page letter in multiple newspapers.

A military official said they will be fired after their letter which said, "The war serves primarily political and personal interests".

Israeli media reported Friday that Egypt and Israel had exchanged draft documents on a ceasefire-hostage release deal.

The Times of Israel reported that the Egyptian proposal would provide for the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies in exchange for a truce of between 40 and 70 days and a large number of Palestinian prisoner releases.

P.Deng--ThChM