A pre-dawn Israeli airstrike killed at least 17 people and injured others sheltering in a house in northern Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian » said the doctors.

Dozens of people were sheltering in the Alloush family home in Jabalia, an urban refugee camp, when a direct hit from an airstrike led to the “complete destruction” of the building, according to the news agency Palestinian Wafa.

The death toll from the attack varied Sunday, with local hospital officials telling the Associated Press that the number was 17, including nine women. Wafa reported a death toll of 32, including 13 children. Gaza Health Ministry officials have not released a report.

The total number of injuries was not immediately clear, but residents said the building was home to at least 30 people when it was hit.

Preliminary images posted on social media showed dozens of bodies, including several children, wrapped in blankets and lying on the floor at a hospital. The Independent has not independently verified these videos.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the strike, but says it only targets militants, whom it accuses of hiding among civilians in homes and shelters. Israeli strikes often kill women and children.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service says its operations to provide relief to displaced families have been interrupted over the past 19 days by an ongoing Israeli raid on two towns and a refugee camp in northern Gaza, which began on October 5.

Israel sent its forces to Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza enclave in what it described as an operation to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping there. He claims Israeli troops have killed hundreds of militants in the new offensive.

Sunday’s strike was similar to another Israeli airstrike on a house in the Sabra neighborhood that killed a Social Affairs Ministry official, Wael Al-Khour, his wife and children, doctors and relatives said.

War-torn Gaza is in the grip of an “extremely serious and rapidly deteriorating” humanitarian crisis and the worst conditions are in the north, according to an alert issued by four hunger experts.

There is a high probability that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza, experts warned on Friday. The Famine Review Committee warned that “famine thresholds may have already been crossed or will be in the near future.”

Experts said all actors in the Gaza war must take immediate action “within days, not weeks… to avoid and mitigate this catastrophic situation.”

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there is no safe zones in Gaza. They also expressed concerns about severe shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies in northern Gaza, and said there was a risk of famine in that area.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, aimed at eliminating the militant group Hamas, has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since it began a year ago, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and ravaged the enclave.

The war began after an attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, on communities in southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli counts.