Israeli strike kills 8 in Rafah, health officials say

Crowds gathered to help evacuate casualties from a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Saturday.

Gaza health officials said eight Palestinians were killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Rafah, where more thanhalf of the territory's residentsaresheltering.

"They say it is a safe area, but we have people being killed each day, we have daily shelling. Where is the safe area? It is just words, it is all nonsense, there is no safe place in all of the Gaza strip," Rafah resident Khaled Ghareeztold Reuters,adding the bodies recovered were mostly of women and children.

The Gaza Health Ministry said ahead of this strike, 92 people were killed and 123 injured in the last 24 hours.

The Israeli military said it had killed dozens of militants and seized weapons across Gaza since Thursday.

Close to 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct.7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel launched its months-long military campaign in retaliation foran Oct. 7 surprise attack by militants from Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel says1,200 people were killed and253 others were taken hostage in the attack.

The rising civilian death toll and worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza have amplified calls for a ceasefire. Hunger and infectious diseases are spreading, and about 80 per centof Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, with about 1.4 million crowded into Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

"There are choking, skyrocketing prices. It's terrifying. There is no source of income. The area is very overcrowded," Hassan Attwa, a displaced man from Gaza City who now shelters in a tent on the sand in Mawasi in the south, told The Associated Press.

WATCH |Gaza hunger crisis 'unprecedented,' saysWorld Food Program official:

Gaza hunger crisis 'unprecedented' in scale, speed, severity: WFP official

8 months ago

Duration 1:16

Arif Husain, chief economist for the World Food Program, told Rosemary Barton Live that 'pretty much everybody' living in Gaza is suffering from hunger, and about a quarter of the population is 'literally starving.'

"The garbage, may God bless you, is not collected at all. It stays piled up. It turns into a mess and clay when it rains. The situation is disastrous in every sense of the word."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to fight until "total victory," but he is under pressure at home to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Earlier this month, Netanyahuordered the country's military to draw up a dual plan to extricate Palestinian civilians from Rafahand to defeat the last Hamas fighters that Israel believes are operating there.

That order drew international concern, including from Israel's allies such asCanada, who warned that a ground operation would be "catastrophic" for the civilians sheltering in Rafah.