Deadly Israeli strikes on 'apocalyptic' Gaza

Israel on Saturday again carried out deadly air strikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions "apocalyptic", as Lebanon's Hezbollah intensified rocket fire near Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv, on Israel's second front.

"The situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic," said a joint statement by UN agency heads.

"The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue," the heads of the humanitarian, health and other agencies said.

"The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence." Witnesses said Israeli warplanes twice hit Beit Lahia, adjacent to Jabalia, overnight. Israel's military on Saturday claims killing dozens of fighters around Jabalia "in aerial and ground activity."

Troops were also operating in central Gaza and Rafah in the territory's far south, it added, while witnesses said Israeli drones and boats opened fire on Al-Mawasi in south Gaza.

Medics and Gaza's civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after AFP images showed the blood-stained shrouds of several people killed there in an Israeli strike. A strike in Israel's Sharon area north of Tel Aviv wounded 19 people, police said early Saturday, after the army reported three projectiles fired from Lebanon into central Israel.

Four of the wounded were "in moderate condition", the Israeli police said. Hezbollah said it had again launched rockets at Israel's Glilot intelligence base near Tel Aviv.

AFP images from Tira, a predominantly Arab town about 25 kilometres (15 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv, showed the upper wall blown out in what appeared to be a residential building.