Israel keeps pounding Gaza; Nuseirat raid toll rises to 274

Israeli forces pounded central Gaza anew Sunday, a day after killing 274 Palestinians during a hostage rescue raid, and tanks advanced further into Rafah in an apparent bid to seal off part of the southern city, residents and Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said.

In an update, Gaza's health ministry said 274 Palestinians were killed - up from 210 it reported on Saturday - and 698 were injured when Israeli special force commandos stormed into the densely populated Al-Nuseirat camp to rescue four hostages.

Sixty-four of the dead were children and 57 were women, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.

Hamas' armed wing said three Israeli hostages, including one with US citizenship, were killed during the raid.

Gaza's health ministry said another 798 Palestinians were injured in the Israeli raid, and one of them, 4-year-old Tawfiq Abu Youssef, was in critical condition.

In central Gaza , Israeli airstrikes on houses in the city of Deir Al-Balah and in the nearby Al-Bureij refugee camp killed three Palestinians in each location, while tanks shelled parts of Al-Nuseirat and Al-Maghazi camps, medics said.

The Israeli military said in a statement its forces were continuing operations east of Al-Bureij and Deir al-Balah.

Israeli tank forces have seized Gaza's entire border strip with Egypt running through Rafah to the Mediterranean coast and invaded many districts of the city of 280,000 residents, prompting around one million displaced people who had been sheltering in Rafah to flee elsewhere.

Yesterday, tanks advanced into two new districts in an apparent effort to complete the encirclement of the entire eastern side of Rafah.

Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike on a house in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah killed two people.

Israel's air and ground war in Gaza has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.

Attempts by the United States and regional countries to broker a deal that would release all remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire have repeatedly stumbled.

A humanitarian catastrophe has unfolded as the war has dragged on, with over three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3mn population displaced, malnutrition widespread and basic infrastructure in ruins.

Gaza's conflict has destabilised the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas' main supporter Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israel along its northern border for months, raising fears of all-out war.