Israel began its offensive in Gaza after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, with more than 250 others taken hostage. Last month, Israel said more than 60 living hostages, and the bodies of about 35 others taken captive were still in Gaza.

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 15 people on Wednesday, some of them in a school housing displaced people, medics in Gaza said, adding that the fatalities included two sons of a former Hamas spokesman.

Hospital officials in northern Gaza say many people have been killed in overnight Israeli air strikes. Gazan rescue teams say search operations began early in the morning after Israel bombed at least five buildings in Beit Lahia and Gaza City.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701 in August 2006 as part of a cease-fire that ended Israel’s last war with Lebanon. The resolution sought to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to prevent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, but has failed to keep the peace.

Heavy rains flooded tent encampments of displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday, adding seasonal winter misery to communities already devastated by 13 months of war, as Israeli forces stepped up strikes in the enclave.

At least 17 Palestinians have been killed in new Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, the territory's Hamas-controlled civil defence force reported on Wednesday. Ten people were killed when a school building in the city of Gaza was bombarded,