The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 44,800 people, more than half of whom are women and children, since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The six hostages, whose bodies were found in Gaza over the summer, were probably shot in February by their captors as an Israeli strike hit close to the tunnel where they were held, the military said.

At least 21 people have been killed and 30 injured in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, Palestinian reports said on Saturday. Al-Awda hospital staff told dpa the strike hit a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee neighbourhood in central Gaza.