Airstrike kills 12, mostly children, in Gaza area declared safe zone by Israel

Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a morgue in Khan Younis on Thursday (Mohammed Dahman/AP)

An Israeli airstrike flattened a home on Thursday in an area of southern Gaza that the military had declared a safe zone, as Israeli troops continued their assault in the nearby city of Khan Younis.

Palestinian hospital officials said the blast killed at least 12 people, almost all of them children.