An Israeli air strike on a four-storey apartment building in Gaza City's Shijaiyah neighbourhood killed at least 23 people, Palestinian health officials said. Eight women and eight children were among the dead, and rescue crews continued searching the rubble.
Al-Ahly Hospital reported the casualty total, which Gaza's Health Ministry confirmed. The ministry's emergency service said the strike hit a residential block, while the civil-defence organisation operating under Gaza's Hamas-run government reported damage to neighbouring structures. Photographs from the scene showed bodies being brought to the hospital and families gathering to mourn.
The Israeli military said it targeted a senior Hamas member whom it accused of directing attacks from Shijaiyah. It did not identify the person or provide additional information in the supplied account. Israel has repeatedly said Hamas operates within dense civilian areas and bears responsibility for resulting civilian deaths. The scale of the casualties at the apartment building, however, was independently reported by multiple supplied outlets, including the Associated Press and Channel 4.
The strike occurred after Israel resumed military operations following the collapse of an eight-week ceasefire. Israel had issued broad evacuation orders for parts of Gaza, including Shijaiyah, and imposed a blockade on food, fuel and other humanitarian supplies. United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Israeli authorities denied permission for more than two-thirds of 170 attempted aid movements within Gaza after the ceasefire ended, severely straining efforts to distribute dwindling stocks.
That truce had temporarily increased aid deliveries and enabled exchanges of captives and prisoners. Twenty-five living Israeli hostages were released, along with the remains of eight others, in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. After fighting restarted, mediators tried to establish another pause that could free additional hostages and open negotiations over ending the war.
The parties remained far apart. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would not finish before Hamas was defeated. Hamas said it would not release the remaining 59 hostages—24 of whom were believed alive—without an end to the war. Earlier in the week, the group fired ten rockets toward southern Israel, its strongest volley since the ceasefire collapsed.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the broader war had killed more than 50,000 Palestinians. Its total does not distinguish civilians from combatants, although the ministry says women and children constitute more than half the dead. Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and attackers took roughly 250 captives.
Separate supplied reporting put the April 9 death toll across Gaza at 35, but provided detailed corroboration only for the 23 people killed in Shijaiyah. That narrower figure anchors this account. The combination of a deadly residential strike, renewed evacuation orders and restricted aid showed how the end of the ceasefire simultaneously intensified military and humanitarian risks.
