At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on residential buildings in central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Wafa news agency.

The toll includes 12 people who were killed in an Israeli air attack on two houses in the town of al-Qarara near the southern city of Khan Younis, the agency reported, citing local and medical sources.

Dozens more were wounded while several others were reported missing under the rubble, the agency said.

Another eight people – most of them children – were killed in Israeli shelling of the town of az-Zawayda in central Gaza, it added.