31 killed in separate Israeli strikes in Gaza

Gaza rescuers said Israeli strikes in Gaza Sunday killed at least 31 people, as the Israeli military pursues its offensive against Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in the north of the enclave.

"Since dawn today, at least 17 citizens have been martyred in Israeli attacks on homes and citizens in the northern Gaza Strip," said Gaza's civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

Among the dead were six in the town of Beit Lahia and four in Jabalia. They included women and children, he said.

Muhammad Salha, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, described the situation as "horrific".

Since October 6, Israel's military has conducted a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, in what it calls an operation to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.

"This shelling has led to the destruction of numerous buildings and infrastructure... Over 100,000 residents are in northern Gaza without food, water or medicine," Bassal added.

Separately, medics in Gaza in the south said 13 Palestinians were killed in several Israeli strikes Sunday.

Medics from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported "the martyrdom of nine citizens, including four children, in an Israeli air strike east of Khan Yunis".

The civil defence agency said it retrieved three bodies, of a woman and her two children, after a raid on Rafah's eastern Khirbet al-Adas neighbourhood.

One more person was also reported killed, the agency added.

Palestinians said the new aerial and ground offensives and forced evacuations were "ethnic cleansing" aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a camp of their population in order to create buffer zones.

On Saturday, the Israeli military sent a new army division to Jabalia to join two other operating battalions, a statement said.

Meanwhile, COGAT, the Israeli army's Palestinian civilian affairs agency, said it facilitated the launch of the second round of a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza on Saturday and that 58,604 children have received a dose.

A larger ceasefire that would end the war and see the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held captive in Gaza as well as Palestinians jailed by Israel remains remote due to disagreements between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas wants an agreement to end the war permanently, refusing recent offers for temporary truces, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.