Overnight Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 18

A Palestinian man comforts another as they inspect the destruction in Rafah. Pic/AP

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 18 people overnight and into Sunday, according to medics and witnesses, as the US said it would veto another draft UNcease-fire resolution.

The US, Israel's top ally, instead hopes to broker a cease-fire agreement and hostage release between Israel and Hamas, and envisions a wider resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back, calling Hamas' demands "delusional" and rejecting US and international calls for a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

An airstrike in Rafah overnight killed six people, including a woman and three children, and another strike killed five men in Khan Younis, the main target of the offensive over the past two months. Associated Press journalists saw the bodies arrive at a hospital in Rafah.

In Gaza City, which was isolated, largely evacuated and suffered widespread destruction in the initial weeks of the war, an airstrike flattened a family home, killing seven people, including three women, according to Sayed al-Afifi, a relative of the deceased.

The head of the World Health Organization, meanwhile, said Nasser Hospital, the main medical center serving southern Gaza, "is not functional anymore" after Israeli ground forces conducted raids at the facility in the southern city of Khan Younis last week.

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