Gaza’s civil defence agency has said an overnight Israeli strike killed nine members of a Palestinian family, including six children, in the southern city of Rafah, AFP reports.

Five children aged one to seven and a 16-year-old girl were among the dead, along with two women and a man, according to the city’s Al Najjar hospital.

“Nine martyrs, including six children, were pulled out from the rubble after Israeli air forces struck a house of the Radwan family in Tal al-Sultan in Rafah,” Gaza Civil Defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.

Outside the hospital, an AFP journalist saw people grieving over small body bags. A woman stroked a dead boy’s forehead as planes rumbled overhead.

“People were sleeping peacefully,” said neighbour Abu Mohammed Ziyadah.

“As you can see, there were no militants, not even male adults, except for the head of the family. They were all women and children.”