As an Israeli strike on Abu Samra family’s house in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah killed at least 13, an AFP photographer saw residents searching through the debris for survivors, while others looked for belongings they could salvage.

In a nearby compound, bodies covered in blankets lay on the sandy ground. The Israeli military claimed it targeted an Islamic Jihad fighter who was operating in Deir el-Balah.

“We are… losing loved ones every day,” said Deir el-Balah resident Naim al-Ramlawi.

“I pray to God that a truce will be reached soon” and would allow Gazans to finally “live a decent life, instead of this miserable life”, he said.

Separately, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said an strike on a school building in Gaza City killed eight, including four children. AFP images showed mangled concrete slabs and iron beams strewn amid patches of blood at the damaged school building.