The Al-Shaer family went to bed hungry at their home in Gaza City. An Israeli airstrike killed them in their sleep.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 59,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages.

Health authorities say Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people. Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people late Tuesday and early Wednesday. More than half of those killed were women and children, health authorities said.

The Israeli military said that a “technical error” had caused a munition — intended for an Islamic Jihad militant — to land dozens of meters from its target.

Top church leaders have visited Gaza after its only Catholic church was struck by an Israeli shell the day before.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said Tuesday, as Israel pushed on with a new incursion in an area that had largely been spared heavy fighting during the 21-month war.

The aid agency says its buildings in the central part of the territory were attacked after the military targeted Deir al-Balah, which had largely been spared.

Israeli forces killed at least 27 people in attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including three people who died in a strike on a church that late Pope Francis used to speak to regularly, medics and church officials said.