Israeli forces pushed deeper into areas of the central and southern Gaza Strip where they are battling Hamas militants, while Palestinian health officials said on Thursday that Israeli strikes were killed at least 27 people in the entire enclave, reports "Reuters".
The new escalation comes hours after US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the urgency of a Gaza ceasefire deal and the release of hostages.
Months of on-and-off ceasefire talks revolve around the same issues, but Israel and Hamas are sticking to their demands.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, a strike on a house killed 11 people, including children and women, the bodies of some of whom were burned, according to the Hamas-run Civil Emergency Management Agency.< /p>
Medics said another strike killed six people, including a local journalist, in a house in Al Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, while five others were killed in separate strikes in the south.
Later on Thursday, five Palestinians were killed and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit people near a square in Khan Younis, health officials said.
The Israeli army said its forces had stepped up operations in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, and Khan Younis, in the south, dismantling dozens of military structures, locating rockets and killing militants in the past 24 hours.
The army statement said Israeli forces killed 50 militants in the Rafah area, in the far south of the enclave, in the past day.
Hamas' armed wing said militants ambushed Israeli forces in Rafah, killing and wounding several of them.
A telephone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu late Wednesday followed a stormy trip to the region by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, which ended Tuesday without a breakthrough in the 10-month war.
"Hamas" wants a deal that ends the war in Gaza and releases Israeli and foreign hostages in Gaza in exchange for the freedom of many Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The group blames Israel and the United States for the failed deal.
Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is defeated and that a ceasefire to allow hostage and prisoner exchanges would only be a temporary pause while the armed groups remain a threat. He denies obstructing a deal.
In the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, home to about 1 million residents and displaced Palestinians, according to the municipal council, residents said tanks had advanced further from the east and blocked some roads connecting the city to nearby Khan Yunis in the south.
Israeli tanks have also advanced west into Khan Younis' al-Qarara and Hamad areas, pushing more families from their shelters and tents, sometimes under heavy fire from tanks and drones, residents said.
Some families slept on the roads, others on the beach after not being able to find a place or shelter.