Israeli strikes kill at least nine in Gaza

Israeli strikes have killed at least nine Palestinians, including five family members, in separate attacks in Gaza this morning, health ⁠officials said.

Medics said Israeli planes launched strikes on four apartments around the same time before dawn.

One of the strikes killed five people in a single family, including the parents, medics said.

Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City also reported 15 people wounded in the strikes, according to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency in the Palestinian territory.

Despite a truce technically in effect since October, daily violence has rocked Gaza, over half of which is under Israeli military control in defiance of the ceasefire's terms.

Israel has killed at least 936 people since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

Both Hamas and Israel accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.

The first phase of the truce involved the release of the last Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.

A transition to the second phase of the ceasefire, which was supposed to involve Hamas's disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army, has been stalled for months.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to take control of 70% of Gaza.

The latest head of Hamas's armed wing in Gaza, Mohammed Odeh, was killed in an Israeli strike last week, a month after his predecessor was also killed.