Israel bombed southern Gaza's main city on Monday after Hamas warned no hostages would leave the territory alive unless its demands for Palestinian release were met.
Israel says there are still 137 hostages in Gaza, while activists say around 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails.
Months of intense bombardment and clashes have left Gaza's health system on the brink of collapse, with most hospitals no longer functioning and nearly two million people displaced. AFP visited the bombed-out ruins of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and found at least 30,000 people taking refuge amid the rubble after Israeli forces raided the medical facility last month.
"Our life has become a living hell, there's no electricity, no water, no flour, no bread, no medicine for the children who are all sick," said Mohammed Daloul, 38, who fled there with his wife and three children.
- 'Collapsing' health system - The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced from their homes -- roughly half of them children. Israel had urged people to seek refuge in the south, but after expanding the war to include southern targets, there were few safe places for civilians to go.
Humanitarian organizations continued to press Israel for greater protection of civilians in the conflict.
Mapping software deployed by Israel's army to try to reduce non-combatant deaths was condemned as inadequate Sunday by Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.
"A unilateral declaration by an occupying power that patches of land where there is no infrastructure, food, water, health care, or hygiene are 'safe zones' does not mean they are safe," she said.
Only 14 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are functioning at any capacity, according to the United Nations' humanitarian agency OCHA.
"Gaza's health system is on its knees and collapsing," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as the agency called for immediate, unimpeded aid deliveries.
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