The latest Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 60 Palestinians in southern and central Gaza, including one that struck an Israeli-declared "safe zone" crowded with thousands of displaced people.
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Airstrikes in recent days have brought a constant drumbeat of deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, even as Israel has pulled back or scaled down major ground offensives in the north and south.
Almost daily strikes have hit the "safe zone" covering some 60sq km along the Mediterranean coast, where Israel told fleeing Palestinians to take refuge to escape ground assaults.
Israel has said it is pursuing Hamas militants who are hiding among civilians after offensives uprooted underground tunnel networks.
Tuesday's deadliest strike hit a main street lined with market stalls outside the southern city of Khan Younis in Muwasi, at the heart of the zone that is packed with tent camps. Officials at Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital said 17 people were killed.
Apparently referring to the strike, the Israeli military said in a statement it targeted a commander in Islamic Jihad's naval unit west of Khan Younis. It said it was looking into reports that civilians were killed.
The attack hit about a kilometre from a compound that Israel struck on Saturday, saying it was targeting Hamas' top military commander, Mohammed Deif.
That blast, in an area also surrounded by tents, killed more than 90 Palestinians, including children, according to Gaza health officials. It is still not known if Deif was killed in the strike.
The new airstrikes came as Israel and Hamas continued to weigh the latest ceasefire proposal.
Hamas has said talks meant to wind down the nine-month-long war would continue, even after Israel targeted Deif.
International mediators are working to push Israel and Hamas toward a deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.
Israeli forces have repeatedly had to launch new offensives to combat Hamas fighters they say have been regrouping in parts of Gaza that the military has previously invaded.
Still, the military has sounded increasingly confident it has severely damaged the militants' organisation and infrastructure in its nine-month-old campaign.
The military said on Tuesday it has eliminated half the leadership of Hamas' military wing and some 14,000 militants have been killed or detained.
The figures could not be independently confirmed.
Strikes late on Monday and on Tuesday hit the Nuseirat and Zawaida refugee camps in central Gaza. Strikes on four houses killed at least 24 people, including 10 women and four children, according to officials at Al Aqsa hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.
Another hit a UN school in Nuseirat where families were sheltering, killing at least nine people.
Israel's military said Hamas militants were operating from the school to plan attacks. Its claim could not be independently confirmed.
Other strikes in Khan Younis and Rafah killed 12 people, according to medical officials and AP journalists.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it would begin sending draft notices to Jewish ultra-Orthodox men next week - a step that could destabilise Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and trigger more large protests in the community.
Under long-standing political arrangements, ultra-Orthodox men had been exempt from the draft, which is compulsory for most Jewish men — an exemption that created resentment among the general public in Israel.
The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the territory's Health Ministry.
The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.
Hamas' October attack killed 1200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostages. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
Australian Associated Press
