A young protester holds up a sign during a rally organized by Lebanese organizers and Palestinian refugee organizations to denounce the starvation of Palestinians in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip, in the southern Lebanese port city of Saida on July 25, 2025. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli military operations killed at least 26 people on Friday across the Palestinian territory, with another five killed in an overnight air strike.
Civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed in a strike on Gaza City that hit a school building sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, now in its 22nd month.
Bassal said five others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent used by displaced Palestinians also in Gaza City, in the territory's north.
The Israeli military said that the strike was carried out late Thursday, targeting "a key terrorist in the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation," a militant group that has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.
According to the civil defense agency, more than a dozen other Palestinians were killed in several strikes in Gaza's north, center and south on Friday.
The toll includes at least eight people killed by Israeli fire while waiting to collect humanitarian aid, Bassal said.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not comment on the agency's reports.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after a deadly attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli campaign has killed 59,676 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
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