More than 93 Palestinians were feared dead in Gaza on Tuesday when Israel bombed a residential building in the northern district of Beit Lahia, local health authorities said.
"A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them," the territory's health ministry said in a statement.
Later on Tuesday, Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the government media office, put the number of fatalities at 93.
The ministry's emergency service said the dead include at least 12 women and 20 children, including babies.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been waging a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for more than three weeks, targeting what it says are pockets of Hamas members allegedly regrouping there.
Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the field hospitals' department at the Gaza Health Ministry had earlier put the death toll at 77, with many more missing.
Video footage obtained by Reuters showed several bodies wrapped in blankets on the ground outside a bombed five-story building. More bodies and survivors were being retrieved from under the wreckage as neighbors rushed to help with the rescue.
"There are tens of martyrs (dead) - tens of displaced people were living in this house. The house was bombed without prior warning. As you can see, martyrs are here and there, with body parts hanging on the walls," Ismail Ouaida, a witness who was helping to recover bodies, said in the video.
'Succumb to their destiny'
The Health Ministry said on Tuesday those wounded in the strike could not receive care as doctors had been forced to evacuate the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Gaza's emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault into northern Gaza.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said it was overwhelmed by the wave of wounded people from the strike.
Dozens of bodies killed in the strike were also brought to the hospital, Safiya said.
"We are still receiving a number of martyrs and wounded," Safia said, adding that the hospital was struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines.
"There is nothing left in the Kamal Adwan Hospital except first aid materials after the army arrested our medical team and workers when they invaded the hospital during the military operation in Jabalia," Safia added.
Israeli forces raided the medical facility over the weekend, detaining dozens of medics. Israel claims it detained scores of Hamas members in the raid.
Since Oct. 6, the military has conducted a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.
On Monday, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in those areas.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee northern Gaza since the onslaught began, while the civil defense agency has reported hundreds of deaths.
The death toll from Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has exceeded 43,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said.