Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes early on Tuesday killed at least seven people in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.

At least 15 others, including women and children, were injured in the strikes, they said.

The civil defence said the dead include five people who were killed in a strike on a family house in the Qizan al-Najjar area.

The strike also wounded at least 10 others, it said.

Another strike hit a house in the Tahlia area in Khan Younis, killing at least two people and wounding five others, according to the rescue service.

The casualties from both strikes were confirmed in hospital records in Khan Younis.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians but rarely comments on individual strikes.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. It does not say how many were fighters, but says a little over half were women and children.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 of the captives are still being held in Gaza, and a third of them are believed to be dead.