Gaza, May 20 (IANS): At least 31 Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip while the Israeli army announced the killing of two of its soldiers in battles in the enclave.

Local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua news agency that Israeli warplanes targeted at Sunday dawn an inhabited house for the Hassan family in the Nuseirat Palestinian refugee camp, which led to its destruction.

Medical sources told Xinhua that the Israeli raid resulted in the killing of 31 people, including children and women, and the wounding of several others with varying injuries, all of whom have been transferred to hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said in a press statement that two soldiers were killed in an incident in the southern Strip, while three others were injured, one of them seriously, Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 35,386, and 79,366 were injured, according to Gaza health authorities on Saturday.