A Palestinian health official said today that at least 21 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people in the Gaza Strip.

Atif al-Hut, director of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, a city in southern Gaza, said at least 28 other people were wounded in the attack.

The Israeli military said a fighter jet attacked Hamas extremists involved in terrorist activities in the area and that the attack caused secondary explosions.

The army considers this as evidence that there were explosives there. It was not possible to independently verify the Israeli claims, and the attack may also have caused fuel, canisters of cooking gas and other flammable material.

At least 15 bodies were taken to the hospital.

The attack hit the Mousavi area, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge, near Khan Younis. Earlier there were attacks in other areas of the Palestinian enclave.

Eight people, including four children, were killed in earlier attacks in central Gaza.

Israel says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the extremists often operate in residential areas and the tunnels they have dug, rocket launchers and other infrastructure are next to homes, schools and mosques.

More than 44.500 Palestinians have died in the Gaza war, which began on October 7 last year after Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1.200 people and kidnapping more than 250.