Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that Israeli strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the territory yesterday. The violence came even as Palestinian groups involved in the fighting said a ceasefire deal was “closer than ever”.

On the ground in Gaza, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.

The military also confirmed a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City. Bassal said eight people including four children were killed in the attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.

It was the latest of numerous similar strikes against schools-turned-shelters during the offensive.

Bassal said in a statement that a separate strike, overnight into Sunday, killed three people in Rafah, in the south. And a drone strike on Sunday morning hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people, the spokesman added.

Later on Sunday, the civil defence agency said seven people were killed when Israeli drones struck tents in the humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi in western Khan Younis, while the Israeli military claimed it had targeted a “Hamas terrorist”.