Israel continued to relentlessly bombard the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, showing no signs of implementing a ceasefire in the besieged enclave.
At least 140 people were killed in overnight Israeli raids on the territory, according to Hamas officials.
A statement from the government’s media office said “more than 140 people were martyred and hundreds wounded in massacres committed by the occupation (Israel) raids.”
Violent raids continued throughout the night from the north to the south of raids, killing dozens and sending entire buildings to the ground, the reports said.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Israel launched fresh bombs on Jabalia and the al-Qarara area in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Al Arabiya reported.
Wide areas of Gaza have been flattened by Israeli bombs, forcing more than one million residents to seek shelter elsewhere in the territory.
With food, clean water, medicine and fuel fast running out, the United Nations and aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and pleaded for supplies to be allowed in.
Earlier, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi suggested Israel had no intention of curbing its strikes.
“We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling,” Halevi said in a statement.
“We are well prepared for the ground operations in the south,” he added. “Troops who have more time are better prepared, and that is what we are doing now.”
Medical officials in Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed or wounded overnight across the enclave, mostly in southern Gaza, due to the Israeli bombing. At least 15 houses were destroyed, the officials said.
Residents said an Israeli missile hit a petrol station in Khan Younis, where workers, families, and others who fled the eastern side of the city were gathered. Several were killed or wounded, they said.
“This a petrol station and there is solar panel power here, so people come to charge their devices and fill water. They bombed them in their sleep,” said Abdallah Abu Al-Atta, who lives by the petrol station.
More than 40 medical centers stopped operations after they ran out of fuel and after some of them were damaged by Israeli bombing, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said.
Israel has so far killed more than 5,000 people and injured 18,000 others, retaliating for the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel.
Israeli officials say 1,400 died in the incursion.
No aid for Gaza
A third small aid convoy from Egypt entered Gaza, where the population of 2.3 million has been running out of food, water and medicine under Israel’s sealed border.
With Israel still barring entry of fuel, the UN said its distribution of aid would grind to a halt within days when it can no longer fuel trucks inside Gaza.
Hospitals flooded by a constant stream of wounded are struggling to keep generators running to power lifesaving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies.
Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli women among the more than 200 hostages taken during its Oct. 7 assault. They were the third and fourth hostages to be released.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the hostages and underscored the need to sustain “a continuous flow” of humanitarian assistance into Gaza in a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.