"Nineteen martyrs were brought to hospitals... while more than 60 people were wounded, some of them seriously" in the overnight strike on the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in the southern city of Khan Yunis, the ministry said in a statement.

It said more victims were likely still buried in the rubble.

When asked by AFP about the discrepancy between the tolls provided by the health ministry and the civil defence agency, the spokesman for the civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said: "We cannot doubt the health ministry's report."

"If they said 19, then it is 19 martyrs. They bear the responsibility" for the toll figures, Bassal said.

The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre inside the so-called safe zone set up for displaced Palestinians in Khan Yunis.

It said it "struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Yunis".

But it questioned the strike's death toll of 40 provided by the civil defence agency, saying the numbers "do not align with the information held by the IDF (Israeli military), the precise munitions used and the accuracy of the strike".

The military statement named several Palestinian militants it said were killed in the strike, describing them as "directly involved in the execution of the October 7th massacre".

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