A huge fire has broken out during birthday party with 21 members of the same family killed.
Victims of a blaze which tore through a top-floor apartment in the Gaza Strip were related, two of their relatives confirmed.
Officials in Hamas-run Gaza said last night's blaze in a three-storey residential building in Jabaliya refugee camp was apparently fuelled by stored petrol.
They said it was not clear how the petrol ignited, but an investigation is underway.
It was one of the deadliest incidents in Gaza in recent years outside the violence stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The fire destroyed the top-floor apartment in the building, home to the Abu Raya family.
Mohammed Abu Raya, a family spokesman, said the extended family had gathered for two celebrations, the birthday of one of the children and the return of one of the adults from a trip to Egypt.
Mr Abu Raya spoke at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, where the bodies had been taken and where sobbing relatives were waiting for funeral processions to begin.
He challenged assertions stored petrol fuelled the blaze, saying furniture made from flammable materials was more likely to have accelerated the flames.
He said: "The disaster was that no one came out alive to tell us the truth of things.
"I do not think that it was stored gasoline."
Those killed were from three generations - a couple, their five sons and one daughter, two daughters-in-law and 11 grandchildren, according to Mr Abu Raya and Mohammed Jadallah, who married into the Abu Raya family.
Thousands later joined a funeral procession for the victims.
Gaza is facing a severe energy crisis, lbecause of the Israeli-Egyptian border blockade that has been in place since the Islamic militant Hamas took control of the territory 15 years ago.
People often store cooking gas, diesel and petrol in homes in preparation for winter.
House fires have previously been caused by candles and gas leaks.
The Mirror reported last year how a father of a four-year-old girl who lost almost her entire family in the Israel-Gaza conflict said his daughter hasn't spoken since their home was destroyed by a missile.
Maria Abu Hatib's four siblings - Bilal, Mariam, Yusuf and Yamin - and her mother Yasmine died in the attack.
Maria's father survived because he had nipped out to the shops for bread prior to the bombing.
And Maria herself was found on the ground floor of the building, in Gaza.
The group had been celebrating Eid with another family, the Hadidis.
Four of the Hadidi and their mother also died in the attack, with a total of 10 lives lost, all women and children.
As Maria sat emotionless on his knee, Alaa Abu Hatib, her father, told Sky News : "Until now she hasn't spoken a word from the shock and horror.
"She was on the third floor and we found her on the ground floor. We found her down on the floor. She's still shocked, a little girl what she saw we, as adults, can't handle it."
