Non-profit organisation Medical Aid for Palestinians has said that the Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, Om Al Nasser village and the east of Gaza City were hard-hit in overnight airstrikes and heavy tank shelling.

As the Ministry of Health reported that so far, 119 people have been killed in this week’s violence, including 31 children, the medical aid group said it believed “more victims are buried under the rubble of their destroyed houses”.

“Many people have lost their homes,” Medical Aid for Palestinians said in a tweet.

Describing the impact of Israel’s latest assault, the non-profit said: “The scenes of some roads in Gaza look like an earthquake has struck because of the intense damage.”

A chart from Statista shows the human cost of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before this year.

Tracking deaths and injuries documented by the United Nations between 2008 and 2020 resulting from the conflict, the chart shows how at least 5,590 Palestinians have been killed within the 12-year time span.

Tens of thousands more Palestinians were injured during that time, while thousands of people in Israel were also injured.

The surge of violence this week has seen 119 Palestinians killed, including 31 children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. At least 830 Palestinians been injured.

Eight people have been killed in Israel.

Palestinians living along Gaza’s northern and eastern borders were forced to flee to temporary shelters on Friday amid Israel’s bombardment.

Families sought refuge in temporary shelters in central Gaza City amid the assault, which the Israeli army said was aimed at destroying a network of militant underground tunnels.

Fleeing families could be seen arriving at shelters in pickup trucks, on donkeys and by foot, according to The Associated Press.

Many carried pillows, blankets, food and cooking supplies.

One mother who fled with her children to a shelter at a school run by the United Nations said “nothing remains for us” back in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Her son, Othman, said he had felt his home “shake up and down”.

“Everyone was running,” he said.

Video shared with The Independent shows a family in northern Gaza huddling together in fear during the Israeli army’s airstrikes overnight.

Young children can be seen huddling together before crying out as blasts ring out.

The Israeli army said it hammered northern Gaza early Friday in a bid to destroy a network of militant tunnels inside the territory.

The death toll in Gaza has risen, with at least 119 Palestinians being killed in the violence this week, including 31 children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. At least 830 others have also been wounded.

The Israel Defense Forces say the country’s Iron Dome Aerial Defense System has just intercepted a “Hamas UAV”, or unmanned aerial vehicle, that crossed from Gaza into Israel.

The Iron Dome is an all-weather defense system that uses radar and analysis to identify potential threats.

It fires an interceptor if an incoming rocket is expected to hit a populated area or key infrastructure.

The Israel Defense Forces have released video of an overnight operation targeting “an underground tunnel system” in Gaza known as the “metro”.

“The target: The Hamas ‘Metro’ tunnel system in Gaza,” the IDF said in a tweet. “The operation: 160 aircraft, tanks, artillery and infantry units along the border.”

“We struck 150 targets and damaged many kilometers of the Hamas ‘Metro’ network,” it said.

Israeli army spokesperson Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said the tunnel system is a “network that the operatives of Hamas use in order to move, in order to hide, for cover”.

The Israeli has said that Hamas’s rocket production capacity “has been significantly  downgraded” following an assault that saw 55 rockets fired overnight.

Israeli army spokesperson Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said the coordinated joint operation, which saw 160 planes from 12 different squadrons and three brigade forces of infantry troops involved, was aimed at destroying “an underground tunnel system” known as the “metro”.

Lt Col Conricus said the tunnel system was essentially a “city under the city of Gaza”.

“What we were targeting is an elaborate system of tunnels that spans underneath Gaza, mostly in the north but not limited to, and is a network that the operatives of Hamas use in order to move, in order to hide, for cover,” he said in a briefing to reporters.

Additional reporting from Reuters

The death toll in Gaza has risen after a fresh assault from the Israeli army.

At least 119 Palestinians have been killed, including 31 children and 19 women, Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday.

At least 830 people have also been injured in the attacks.

The death toll in Israel has risen to 8 after an elderly woman died overnight while running to a shelter, Israel’s army spokesperson Lt.Col Jonathan Conricus has said.

He said 55 rockets were fired overnight, meaning in total 1800 rockets have been fired from Gaza over the last 5 days, with 430 having fallen short.

Conricus said there was no ground invasion overnight but a significant coordinated joint operation that took place which saw 160 planes from 12 different squadrons as well as three brigade forces of infantry troops (artillery and armoured) operate together simultaneously to “destroy an underground tunnel system we refer to as the ‘metro’ which is a city under the city of Gaza”.

The operation lasted 40 minutes, with 50 tank rounds fired, he said.

“Hamas’s rocket production capacity has been significantly  downgraded,” he said, adding there was no update on whether a ground invasion would take place.

The U.N. Security Council will publicly discuss the worsening violence between Israel and Palestinian militants on Sunday, diplomats said.

The United States had initially suggested a virtual public meeting could be held on Tuesday.

However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he hoped waiting a few days would allow for “diplomacy to have some effect and to see if indeed we get a real de-escalation.”

The 15-member council has met privately twice this week about the worst hostilities in the region in years, but has so far been unable to agree on a public statement, diplomats told Reuters.