Since October 6, the Israeli military has been conducting a major land and air offensive in northern Gaza, particularly targeting the city of Jabalia and its adjacent refugee camp, killing thousands of civilians.
"The world welcomed the New Year with celebrations and festivities, while we witnessed 2025 begin with the first Israeli massacre in the town of Jabalia just after midnight," Gaza's civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
"Fifteen people were martyred and more than 20 were injured" in the strike on a house where displaced people were living, he said.
Bassal said those living in the house were members of the Badra, Abu Warda, and Taroush families who had sought refuge there.
Most of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced by Israeli bombardment at least once since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The dead and injured from the strike in Jabalia were moved to Al-Mamadani hospital, said rescuer Mohammed, who provided only his first name.
"They were pulled out from beneath the rubble of the targeted house," he said.
A relative of some of the victims said that rescuers were still searching for any survivors under the debris.
"The house has turned into a pile of debris," said Jibri Abu Warda, adding that the strike occurred at around 1:00 am (23:00 GMT Tuesday).
EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Palestinian children inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike the previous night, in Jabalia, in the central Gaza Strip on January 1, 2025,
'They were all civilians'
Abu Warda said the explosions shook the area, and the rescuers were able to reach the targeted house only in the morning.
"It was a massacre, with body parts of children and women scattered everywhere. They were sleeping when the house was bombed," Abu Warda said.
"No one knows why they targeted the house, they were all civilians."
The military assault, which began on October 6, has since expanded across the northern areas of the Palestinian territory and last week targeted a major hospital which is now empty of its staff and patients.
On Friday, the Israeli military raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, describing it as "one of the largest" operations targeting militants since the start of the war.
The Israeli army killed more than 20 patients and staff and detained over 240 others, including the director of the hospital, Hussam Abu Safiyeh.
Rights groups and the World Health Organisation have called for the immediate release of Abu Safiyeh, whose detention is seen as a blow to the territory's devastated healthcare system.
In a separate Israeli strike on Wednesday that targeted a group of civilians in the Al-Manara neighbourhood of Khan Younis in the territory's south, at least four people were killed, the civil defence agency said.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has so far killed at least 45,553 people and wounded more than 120,000 in the strip, most of them women and children.
More Israeli warnings
Israel warned Wednesday that it will intensify its strikes in Gaza if Hamas keeps up its rocket fire.
Over the past week, Palestinian militants have repeatedly fired rockets at Israel, particularly from northern Gaza, where the Israeli military is conducting its major offensive.
The rockets have caused little damage and have been fired in far smaller numbers than in the early stages of the war, but they have been a political blow for the Israeli government after nearly 15 months of fighting.
"I want to send a clear message from here to the heads of the terrorists in Gaza: If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza... and continues firing at Israeli communities, it will face blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time," Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
His warning came after a visit to the Israeli town of Netivot, which was recently targeted by rocket fire from nearby Gaza.
Palestinian militants are still holding 96 captives seized during their October 7, 2023 attack on the Israeli Gaza Battalion, and successive rounds of negotiations for their release and a ceasefire have all failed.
On Monday, UN human rights experts said the Israeli siege of northern Gaza appears to be part of an effort "to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza's annexation".
Fear of cold
Women wept over shrouded bodies in the morgue of the Al-Ahy Arab Hospital, also known as Baptist Hospital, some of them those of children.
"We don't want aid, we want the war to stop. Enough with the bloodshed! Enough!" said Khalil Abu Warda, another relative.
"Around me there's nothing but rubble and destruction. People don't know what to do, don't know where to go. And they don't know how to survive," said Jonathan Whittall, a UN aid official in a video released after he visited the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza.
Two further Israeli strikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed another 10 people, rescuers said.
The bombardment piled further misery on displaced Gazans already struggling to keep warm amid wintry conditions.
"For three days, we haven't slept out of fear that our children would fall sick because of the winter, as well as fear of missiles falling on us," said one displaced woman, Samah Darabieh.
Short link: