At least 20 people, including five children, were killed in Israeli strikes Saturday night and Sunday morning, Palestinian health officials said.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities allowed Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is the head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, to enter Gaza to attend a pre-Christmas mass with members of the enclave's small Christian community.
An attack on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City left at least eight people dead, including three children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Civil Defense, linked to the Hamas-run government, said earlier that four children were among the dead.
The Israeli army declared that it carried out a precise attack on the Hamas militants who were sheltering there.
Hamas is declared a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
An attack on a house in the central city of Deir al-Balah late Saturday left at least eight people dead, including three women and two children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received their bodies.
A man and his wife were killed in an attack in the southern city of Han Yunis shortly after midnight on Sunday, according to nearby Nasser Hospital. An attack on a car in Gaza City killed two people, according to the Ministry of Health.
There was no immediate comment from the military on the attacks.
Israel continues to carry out daily attacks on Gaza more than 14 months after the war with Hamas began. Israel says it only targets militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians, but the bombings often kill women and children.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping nearly 250 others.
Since then, Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza has left more than 45,000 Palestinians dead, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israel says at least a third of those killed have been militants and says it tries to avoid harming civilians. REL (A2 Televizion)
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