Gaza  -   Israeli bombing killed dozens of people in besieged Gaza, the health ministry of the Palestinian territory said Thursday, as regional tensions have surged over the almost threemonths- old war.

mat’s fourth trip to the region since the October 7 attack on Israel triggered the bloodiest ever Gaza war.

The Israeli military has reported more strikes in and around Gaza City, now a largely devastated urban combat zone, and Khan Yunis, the biggest city in the territory’s south. 

The Gaza health ministry reported “dozens of martyrs and more than 100 wounded in the continued barbaric aerial and artillery bombardment of citizens’ homes in the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli army alleged that it targeted the people attempting to “place an explosive device near soldiers” and an arms depot in Khan Yunis. Fires sparked by bombing raged in Gaza’s central Deir al-Balah area and the Al-Maghazi refugee camp. “People were safe in their homes, the house was full of children,” resident Ibrahim al-Ghimri told AFP. “There were around 30 people. All of a sudden their houses fell on them... What have these children done?”

In response to October 7 attack, Israel launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that has reduced swathes of Gaza to rubble and claimed at least 22,438 lives, according to the health ministry. 

The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans are displaced, and the World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only a minimal amount of aid entering the territory.

The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, said on Thursday he was “very disturbed” after two Israeli cabinet ministers separately called for Palestinians to leave Gaza, raising fears of forced expulsion. Displaced Palestinians living in tents in Gaza’s south were killed in a strike, said bereaved residents who were mourning the dead, wrapped in shrouds at a hospital in Khan Yunis.