Army spokesperson says they 'regret' casualties sustained alongside intended target in a refugee camp on Sunday

The Israeli army admitted on Thursday that it killed dozens of Palestinians in an air strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza on Christmas Eve. 

An army spokesperson told Kan news that the military regretted that the attack, which killed 70 people, had harmed people adjacent to the intended target".

A preliminary investigation revealed that during the attack, additional buildings were damaged adjacent to the targets that were [meant to be] attacked," the spokesperson told Kan."[This] apparently resulted in harm to those not involved... The IDF regrets the harm to those not involved."

Israel has previously bombed the camp, but the attack on Sunday was described as one of the "deadliest" since the start of the conflict in early October.

The bombing of the camp started just before midnight on Christmas Eve and continued into Christmas Day. Hamas called the attack "a horrific massacre" and "a new war crime".

On Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the death toll from Israel's operation had surpassed 21,000, most of them women and children.

Herzi Halevi, the head of the Israeli armed forces, said on Tuesday that the hostilities will continue for "many more months". At least 1.9 million Palestinians have been internally displaced since the beginning of the Gaza assault, according to UN estimates. Only limited amounts of aid have been allowed to enter Gaza since the beginning of the war as Israel has imposed a total blockade on the strip, including cutting off water and electricity supplies, causing severe shortages of water, fuel, food, and medicines.

The conflict in Gaza was triggered by the 7 October incursion by Hamas-led Palestinian fighters into southern Israel, which killed 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to the Israeli army.

During the operation, around 250 people were taken to Gaza as captives, of whom 129 remain in Gaza after a series of prisoner exchanges.