Smoke rises during an Israeli raid at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday. Reuters

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it killed more than 50 Palestinians over the past day in fighting around the Gaza Strip's Shifa hospital.

The military said it was continuing with its "precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital."

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike has killed at least three Palestinians travelling in a car in the northern West Bank near the town of Jenin, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials. The Islamic Jihad group claimed the three dead men as members. The airstrike occurred as raids of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip raged on for a third day.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is determined to carry out a Rafah ground offensive, even as tensions between Israel and the United States intensify.

Palestinians evacuate the body of a man killed in an Israeli raid at the Nur Shams refugee camp on Thursday. AFP

At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. A United Nations food agency warned that "famine is imminent” in northern Gaza.

Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.

Agencies