LONDON: Al-Arabiya’s correspondent in Gaza, Mohammed Awad, said 20 of his relatives, including his brother’s family, were killed on Saturday in an Israeli attack in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The house where they had taken shelter was hit by an Israeli airstrike, the news channel reported. Three other relatives of Awad died previously when their home, in the Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, was hit by an Israeli strike.

Awad told Al-Arabiya that those killed on Saturday included his brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephews, and his brother’s in-laws. He said his brother’s family could not flee their home before the airstrike hit the building at night.

The Israeli military has been pounding central and southern Gaza since Christmas Eve as it expands its air and ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave.

At least 22,700 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military assault on Gaza on Oct. 7, according to the Gazan health ministry, and more than 85 percent of the territory’s 2.3 million population has been displaced.

The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said on Friday that “Gaza has simply become uninhabitable.”