Israel-Hamas War: Over 20 killed in strike on Nuseirat refugee camp

The Israeli army says it is checking reports by Gaza officials that one of its strikes overnight to Sunday killed at least 24 people and wounded several more in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Gaza's civil defense agency said that the strike hit a family house.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said several children were among the wounded.

Earlier, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital had put the death toll at 20.

Ongoing hostilities claim more Israeli, Palestinian fatalities

As fighting across the Gaza Strip continues, both sides are reporting rising death tolls.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that two Israeli soldiers were killed on Saturday in a clash with Palestinian militants in the southern part of the enclave.

The Israeli army has been concentrating military operations on the region in what it says is a bid to root out remaining Hamas fighters holed up there.

This comes as a Gaza hospital reports that at least 20 Palestinians were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike that hit a refugee camp in the center of the territory.

"We received 20 fatalities and several wounded after an Israeli air strike targeted a house belonging to the Hassan family in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said in a statement. 

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that the wounded included several children.

The Nuseirat camp has been the scene of fierce fighting and Israeli aerial attacks since early May, when the IDF began its operation focusing on the southern city of Rafah.

Israel's military says 281 soldiers have been killed in fighting since its first ground incursions in Gaza on October 20.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 35,386 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its offensive in response to October 7 raids by Hamas in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.

Netanyahu under growing pressure to formulate postwar plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing rising calls at home and abroad to come up with viable plans for the administration of Gaza once peace has been restored there.

On Saturday, his main political rival, Benny Gantz, who is a member of the War Cabinet, said he would leave the government on June 8 if a credible plan was not in place.

Such a plan should include having an international, Arab and Palestinian administration to handle civilian affairs in Gaza, he said.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another Cabinet member, has also called for a plan forseeing Palestinian administration of the enclave.

The US, Israel's most important ally, has meanwhile urged that Gaza be governed by a revamped Palestinian Authority, backed by Arab states, before it achieves eventual statehood.

Netanyahu has said that it is impossible to make any such plans until Hamas is defeated.

But he has so far ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and has voiced frequent opposition, shared by his government, to Palestinian statehood.