At least 30 Palestinians, including children, have been killed in Israeli military strikes across central and southern Gaza since dawn.

One of Thursday’s strikes on central Gaza resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people, according to the territory’s civil defence spokesperson, who spoke to the AFP news agency.

“Eleven people were killed and many are missing or wounded after an Israeli air strike targeted a house … which was sheltering displaced people north of az-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip,” spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said.

Emergency services confirmed several children were among the dead, and bodies were taken to a nearby hospital.

Israel has escalated its offensive against the devastated Palestinian territory in recent days, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.

Many are fleeing Gaza City, as Israel intensifies its campaign to capture the Strip’s largest urban centre.

Those who are displaced face uncertainty about shelter locations and must pay inflated prices in new areas for temporary accommodation.

“We have arrived in this remote area with no tents, no facilities. We cannot get water supplies. Kids cannot find anything to eat because we are far from everyone else,” said Ahlam Aqel, a displaced woman from Gaza City.

Ahmed Salama, forcibly displaced from northern Gaza, also expressed concern about his future.

“We are going to central Gaza and we do not know where we are going to stay. The al-Mawasi evacuation zone is overcrowded with displaced people. There is no single space for anyone to move there.”

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Gaza has been largely reduced to ruins, and last month a United Nations-backed organisation officially declared famine in parts of the territory.

“We lost our children, our homes and our places,” said Najia Abu Amsha, a Palestinian whose nephew was killed while waiting for aid, on Wednesday. “We became beggars and sick.”

Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 65,419 people and wounded 167,160, with thousands more believed to be trapped under rubble.