Israeli forces say that attacks on Gaza targeted members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
Al Jazeera’s Youmna El Sayed, reporting from Gaza, said that the Ministry of Health declared that 10 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, and an unconfirmed number of people were injured in the Israeli air attacks.
Explosions targeting residential apartments were heard at about 2am local time on Tuesday (23:00 GMT Monday) in different parts of Gaza, El Sayed said.
“It’s not very clear the names of the people who have been killed or the number of people who have been injured. We only have the confirmation that 10, at least 10, have been announced as killed in the latest airstrikes in different areas that are being carried out now along the Gaza Strip,” El Sayed said.
“Whenever there is targeting of residential apartments, there are always casualties [among] civilians,” she added.
Witnesses said an explosion hit the top floor of an apartment building in Gaza City and a house in the southern city of Rafah in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The latest attacks on Gaza come a week after Israeli missiles pounded the densely-populated strip following rockets fired towards Israel in the aftermath of the death in an Israeli prison of well-known Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan.
Armed Palestinian factions launched more rockets in response to the Israeli bombardment, which damaged multiple areas in Gaza, including al-Safina, al-Baydar and near the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, Al Jazeera’s Maram Humaid reported.
Hashel Mubarak al-Swerki, a 58-year-old father of 11, died after he was severely injured by shrapnel from the Israeli attack northwest of Gaza City. Five other people were also wounds from Israeli missiles east of Beit Hanoun in the north of the besieged strip.
Calm was restored after Qatari, Egyptian and the United Nations officials intervened to broker a ceasefire agreement between Israel and armed Palestinian factions, officials said.
In anticipation of Palestinian rockets being launched in response to the air attacks on Tuesday, Israel’s military issued instructions advising Israeli residents of communities within 40km (25 miles) of Gaza to stay close to designated bomb shelters.