An Is­raeli strike on a res­i­den­tial build­ing in the Gaza Strip on Mon­day killed 14 peo­ple, most­ly women and chil­dren, ac­cord­ing to health of­fi­cials.

The Shi­fa and al-Ahli hos­pi­tals con­firmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Ja­baliya refugee camp in north­ern Gaza, say­ing five women and sev­en chil­dren were among those killed.

The Is­raeli mil­i­tary did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond to a re­quest for com­ment. Is­rael says it on­ly tar­gets mil­i­tants and tries to avoid harm­ing civil­ians. It blames civil­ian deaths on Hamas be­cause the mil­i­tant group is en­trenched in pop­u­lat­ed ar­eas.

The Is­rael-Hamas war be­gan when Pales­tin­ian mil­i­tants stormed in­to Is­rael on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 peo­ple, most­ly civil­ians, and ab­duct­ing 251. Hamas is still hold­ing 58 hostages, around a third of them be­lieved to be alive, af­ter most of the rest were re­leased in cease­fire agree­ments or oth­er deals.

Is­rael’s mil­i­tary cam­paign has killed over 54,000 Pales­tini­ans, most­ly women and chil­dren, ac­cord­ing to Gaza’s Health Min­istry, which does not say how many of the dead were civil­ians or com­bat­ants. The of­fen­sive has de­stroyed vast ar­eas of Gaza and dis­placed around 90% of the pop­u­la­tion.

Hamas has said it will on­ly re­lease the re­main­ing hostages in re­turn for more Pales­tin­ian pris­on­ers, a last­ing cease­fire and an Is­raeli pull­out.

Is­rael has vowed to con­tin­ue the war un­til all the hostages are re­turned, and Hamas is de­feat­ed or dis­armed and sent in­to ex­ile. It has said it will main­tain con­trol of Gaza in­def­i­nite­ly and fa­cil­i­tate what it refers to as the vol­un­tary em­i­gra­tion of much of its pop­u­la­tion.

Pales­tini­ans and most of the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty have re­ject­ed the re­set­tle­ment plans, view­ing them as forcible ex­pul­sion.

DEIR AL-BAL­AH, Gaza Strip (AP)