GAZA’s health ministry has said at least 241 people were killed in the past 24 hours, as Israel’s military operation continues in the territory.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called the war a “grave crime” against his people.
Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi said the conflict with Hamas would continue for “many more months”.
Israel says it hit more than 100 sites on Tuesday, amid reports of impending ground operations in central Gaza.
Loud explosions could be heard from the Gaza Strip across the perimeter with Israel in the early hours of Wednesday.
Gaza’s health ministry said 382 people had also been injured over the same 24 hours.
According to the ministry, at least 20,915 Palestinians have been killed – mostly children and women – in more than 11 weeks of fighting.
President Abbas has described the war in the Gaza Strip as “beyond a catastrophe” and “beyond a war of annihilation”.
He called it unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian people. Speaking in Ramallah to an Egyptian TV channel in his first interview since the war began, he said the territory had become unrecognisable and warned that the occupied West Bank could implode at any time.
The Palestinian leader accused Washington of prolonging the war by vetoing UN draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
