CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 Palestinians in Gaza on Monday, with seven dead in an attack on two houses in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and three fatalities in a strike on a house in Nuseirat camp in the enclave’s centre, medics told Reuters.

Several people were wounded in both attacks, they said, adding that Israeli forces had sent tanks into the northeast of Nuseirat camp earlier on Monday.

Israel deployed tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya on Oct. 5, 2024, saying it intended to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Palestinians said the new aerial and ground offensives and forced evacuations were “ethnic cleansing” aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp of their population to create buffer zones. Israel denies this, saying it is fighting Hamas militants who launch attacks from there.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of Palestinians killed since Oct. 5 at 1,800. It said 4,000 others were wounded.

There was no confirmation on the figure from the territory’s health ministry and Israel has repeatedly accused the Hamas media office of exaggerating the figures of the dead.

Israel said its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.

The war erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s retaliatory offensives have killed more than 43,300 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities, and reduced most of Gaza to rubble.

(Reporting by Nidal Al Mughrabi; editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean)