Four people were killed in the attack on Thursday, and dozens of others wounded. At least 15 people remain missing under the rubble.

The wounded were transferred to the Abu Youssef Al Najjar Hospital and the Kuwaiti Specialty Hospital in Rafah.

The house, which belonged to Abdullah Shehadeh, a doctor, sheltered dozens of displaced people.

People in the neighbourhood, alongside the civil defence crews, dug through the wreckage with simple tools and their bare hands, in an attempt to retrieve the bodies of those killed that remained under the rubble.

In two separate attacks on the Abu Dabaa and Ashour family homes in Rafah, the number of people killed from the aerial bombardment increased to 25.

The attacks came on the same night when communication networks were cut off once again by Israeli forces, the fifth time since October 7.

In a statement, the government media office in Gaza announced the Israeli policy as a “deliberate act”.

“Cutting off communications and the internet means that Palestinians will face life-threatening disasters, as there will be many killed and wounded people [in Israeli attacks] that no one will be able to reach,” the media office said. “Thus, the number of victims killed will increase.”

More than 280 Palestinians and about 800 others were injured on Thursday, as air raids and artillery shelling continued throughout the Gaza Strip, especially in the southern city of Khan Younis, northern Gaza, and the neighbourhoods east of Gaza City.

Since the beginning of the Israeli offensive on the coastal territory, at least 18,797 people have been killed, and more than 50,000 wounded, according to Palestinian authorities. Some 7,780 Palestinians remain missing and are presumed dead under the rubble of their own homes.

More than 253,000 housing units have been partially damaged by the ongoing bombing, and more than 52,000 housing units were completely demolished by the Israeli air attacks or have become uninhabitable.