The Palestinian death toll in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza approached 42,000 on Tuesday with 56 more deaths reported over a 24-hour period.

Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,965 Palestinians and wounded 97,590 since Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said Tuesday.

A ministry statement added that some 97,590 others were injured in the ongoing assault.

"Israeli forces killed 56 people and injured 278 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours," the ministry said.

"Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them," it added.

17 dead at refugee camp

Earlier Tuesday, Gaza's civil defense agency said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people at a refugee camp in the center of the territory.

"The civil defense teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.

Bassal said the bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.

Medics at Al-Awda confirmed the toll.

Flouting a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since the Hamas incursion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Mediation efforts led by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar to reach a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to halt the war.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.