The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said that 125 people were killed and 318 injured in a 24-hour period.

An Israeli strike flattened a home in an area of southern Gaza that the military had declared a safe zone, killing at least 12 people, most of them children, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said that the military operations in southern Gaza, which in the past have included bombing refugee camps and “safe zones”, will continue.

The Israeli military operation has driven more than 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes, levelled much of northern Gaza, and pushed already displaced Palestinians into smaller slivers of the territory where there is no security, food, water or medicines.

At least 22,438 people have been killed and 57,614 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, when the current conflict broke out.