Gaza beachfront hit as Monday death toll from Israeli attacks hits 71

An Israeli attack on Gaza City's beachfront has killed dozens, Palestinian sources said, with Monday's death toll across the coastal strip put at 71.

At least 21 people were killed, staff at the nearby Shifa Hospital told dpa, after eyewitnesses reported that a café on the promenade was hit.

Among the victims were said to be several minors and women, as well as a journalist.

Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, stated instead that the attack targeted a camp for displaced people on the beach, while the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that a rest area on the beach was struck.

Israel's military announced that it would investigate the reports.

The army stated that it is targeting Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, while emphasizing that it takes measures to protect civilians.

According to medical sources in the Palestinian coastal strip, at least 71 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Monday.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed in firing by Israeli soldiers in the south of the Gaza Strip, near an aid distribution centre, WAFA said.

It added that 10 others were killed in Israeli shelling in the area of a warehouse in the south of the city of Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has denied similar reports of fatal incidents at its aid centres in the past.

The foundation, which has been criticized by the United Nations and aid agencies operating in the Palestinian Territories, began its work last month following an almost three-month-long Israeli blockade of aid supplies.

The US-backed GHF says it has since distributed more than 50 million meals to people in the war-torn coastal strip.

The claims made by all sides cannot currently be independently verified.